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This post is a little late, but better than never. My birthday was this past Wednesday and I turned 33, which is a rather... curious number for me.
Ever since the holidays, Anthony got me into Dungeons & Dragons miniatures and I've been collecting them like mad since. Since Wizard's official Warband Generator's collection tracking functionality doesn't show totals, I have no idea how many I've got so far. It's got to be somewhere around 200 to 300, though. Since the sets starting with War Drums forward are currently being sold, they're the ones I mostly have. I'm not trying to get full sets, but I'm not cherry picking a few from each set, either. I also found the perfect carrying case/storage for them all, two of the 2-layer Snapware craft storage boxes stacked together to make what I call the Tower of Doom.
Back in January, Carolaina let me buy a case of War of the Dragon Queen. Since it's a set with Huge-sized minis, it only has 6 booster packs to a case. The very last mini I pulled in the very last booster opened turned out to be the prize of my collection, the mini I wanted most of all: ASPECT OF TIAMAT!! Yes, the mighty Queen of evil dragons herself. I still want the Epic behemoth Bahamut and the almost-too-powerful Tordek, Dwarf Champion.
In February, I talked Carolaina into getting me the Gargantuan Blue Dragon for Valentines Day. This ancient and powerful dragon is just about unbeatable in the minis skirmish game! I had to put together a thousand-point warband of epic monsters just to stand up to his 500 points of nastiness. Even they would have lost if I hadn't played the dragon as if he were senile AND fudged a few dice rolls. I guess he'd be fun to play against if you liked losing all the time. I still enjoy having him on display, though.
For my birthday last week, Carolaina let me get a case of the Blood War set. Since it's a normal (non-Huge) set, it comes with 12 boosters to a case. With the semi-random way the cases are packed, you're guaranteed to get 4 of each common, 1.5 of each uncommon, and half of the rares. The way it worked out, I got most of the rares I wanted, and a few I didn't. The best rares were the Pit Fiend, the Horned Devil, and Vlaakith the Lich Queen. The uncommons I wanted most were the Elf Warmage (she is SO beautiful!) and the Bluespawn Stormlizard--and I got two of each! I still want Storm Silverhand, the Solar, Marilith and the Githyanki Dragon Knight from that set.
In a related note, Anthony and I are making plans to get into the role-playing system/world of Earthdawn. A couple of years ago, we both got the first edition books for the game. I haven't been this excited about a regular pen-and-paper RPG game in a long time. Just FYI, FASA was the company that created the more popular Shadowrun RPG that you may be more familiar with. This weekend I created my character, an Elf Swordmaster, who is quite the ladies man with high Charisma, but also has high standards. I found the perfect mini to represent him in the game, the Elf Swashbuckler from the Angelfire set, but my favorite minis eBay seller ran out of them! Now, Carolaina tells me I can't buy anymore minis until the roof work & bathroom remodeling is finished. ARGH!!
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the decreasing relevance of radio (Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - 12:34:50 AM)
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One day last week, my mp3 player's battery died on me on the way to work. I didn't even make it off of the street I live on before it crapped out. Since I have to have music to occupy my mind while driving, I listened to the radio, which I haven't done for a long while.
I was reminded why I don't listen to the radio anymore: commercials that insult my intelligence, morning show DJs who blather on and on AND ON about the most mundane topics (some celebrity or other's birthday), and rarely a song played that I like, much less could put up with.
Similar things can be said of television, which I haven't watched even longer.
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Messier Field Guide (Friday, February 9, 2007 - 5:32:29 AM)
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One of my interests in astronomy is getting to see all of the Messier objects. Since I'm also trying to learn the sky, I want to be able to find them on my own without the help of a GoTo computer found on consumer telescopes. The GoTo system on our scope was becoming a crutch for me--I'd punch in what I wanted to see and the scope would slew over to it instantly. I wasn't learning the sky at all. So I figured I'd use star charts to find them, and in process, learn the sky. Then I had the problem of identifying the objects themselves. Sure, the star chart points out that something is there, but what does it look like? I needed a handy reference that summed up all the basic info about each one that could be carried around with the star charts.
This field guide is meant to be used in conjunction with any star charts that have the Messier objects marked. I prefer the free Mag-7 star charts made by Andrew Johnson. You can download them from the Cloudy Nights website. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jim Dixon and Wade Van Arsdale for graciously granting use of their photos for this guide.
Messier Field Guide
Now, huzzah and voila, just pass a querystring parameter to the page and you can get it in Messier Marathon order:
Messier Marathon Guide
Easy-to-print PDF version:
Messier-Field-Guide.pdf
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Hobbes in the sink (Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 12:13:43 AM)
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A couple of weeks ago, we had a deep cold snap move through. As usual, I ran a drip/line of water in both sinks to keep the pipes from freezing each night. Sometime during those few days, our cat Hobbes discovered this magical source of fresh water. He will now look for it, and upon not finding any, beg for us to run water in the bathroom sink. I may be biased, but I already thought he was the cutest cat I've ever seen, and you absolutely have to see him doing this.
On Sunday afternoon, I caught him in the act with Carolaina's digital camera. Here's a short 24 second video:
Hobbes drinking from the sink (AVI 3.1Mb)
We're considering getting the kitties a water fountain. In the very least, it seems Hobbes would enjoy one.
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I had a horrible dream overnight--I dreamed that something had happened to Carolaina and I had lost her. The funeral in the dream was absolutely horrible to get through. Of course, I woke up immediately and found that Carolaina wasn't beside me. (The new bed we got has become very unfortable for her, another new [hopefully better] one will be delivered on Friday.) I intellectually knew that she was likely sleeping in the other room, but between the dream and all that we've been through in the past year, I just broke down completely. I guess I feel better, but I'm still an emotional train-wreck right now. The past year and few months have been horrible for us and hopefully her health can only improve from here.
I've been meaning to make a few updates here in my blog, but haven't had the time. I've wanted to post about my Christmas loot and the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures I've gotten into since the holidays. Maybe soon.
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