Really gotta work on that

Been a while since I've been able to put pen to paper, or fingers to keys as it were. As a wise man once said,"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't slow down and look around, you might miss it." I've been under a self-inflicted sort of radio silence recently; keeping my head down and just plodding along with blinders on making sure I just get-by. Not too fair to anyone involved and not really all that entertaining. Never fear, it's not like there hasn't been fun, bright spots and sunshine and rainbows along the way, I just haven't been actively seeking them out.

Locked and Loaded...

     Or, the cool stuff I gleaned from following blogs that posted about Lock and Load weekend. This is the 2nd annual L&L convention for Privateer Press and details regarding the pending Colossals book were strewn about the place like so much dirty laundry. Updates were lying about all over the internet this last weekend. I greatly enjoyed following it all. And while I am excited about the release of the Colossals, not playing one of the main factions for Warmachine (card carrying member of the Rhulic tough-love party here) I'm really only interested in one model in that book. General Ossrum. Here's the infantry caster my Dwarves have long desired. But I digress. Over the course of the weekend, other tidbits were dropped and pictures were displayed. Here are the ones I'm all fired-up over...

WARGamesCon post-action post

     It's been a week now since my wife and I took to the field for our doubles games at WARGamesCon and I've had plenty of time to analyze our games. I've had time to consider what happened in each and why we saw the outcomes we did.  I could say, "Waah! Our codex is older and can't compete with the current books," but the internet is full of whining and I'd rather be more constructive. Besides, I know competitive lists can be built from the current Chaos Space Marine codex. If they couldn't, I'd never win ANY games instead of the 35-40%-ish win ratio I have. It seems like for every win I get, there's a draw, or a hard-fought, very close loss. So what were our failings? What caused the 3 losses we suffered? Stay tuned to find out...

Everybody loves Masquerade

Can't wait to finish my gear for my buddy's Masquerade themed wedding. It was originally going to be steampunk in nature but not enough folks on the bride's side would know what that theme comes out to. So, we get masquerade. I plan on attempting to put in a few steampunkish touches anyway. I love my mask, I just need to find the big leather top hat I want. Of course, it would probably be a good idea to find out what my coat will look like before I start attempting to match a hat to it.

Places of interest

Free browser game: Travian
Best Rootbeer ever: Brewing Company, Wikipedia Article
The Guy they named the brewery after: Saint Arnold

His message to the peasants was to Drink Beer, not water. The beer was seen as healthier since the brewing process involved boiling the water, thus purifying it, unbeknownst to the local populace.

Exercise

Looks like, even though we purchased bicycles, the new form of exercise in the Woodroof-Feltner house is attending the zoo.
So far, 2 weekends have seen us at the zoo, checking out the animals and enjoying the outdoors. The Waco zoo has grown a good bit in recent years, and by summer of 2009 will have an orangutan and komodo dragon exhibit.
The meerkats are great. The brazos river country exhibit is sizable, and contains some very interesting animals, from the 2 black bears to a aviary, to the 2 alligators that have so far, appeared to nap both times we've visited.
The fruit bats in the nocturnal barn are fairly active, but the raccoons just nap.
Anyways, back to work...

GRARRRR

Work continues to be work, just that.
Motivation continues to elude me.
I need to find my spiral wherein Daniel, Damon and myself poured in creativity in the form of a tabletop wargame for a year or more.
I need to start writing again. Ideas can only get you so far. Putting text to page gets you published, or at least looked at by an editor/publishing company.
The tavern looms on the horizon.
As does a promising career as a sci-fi/fantasy author.
So too looms the great games-developer career.
It's all there, I just have to motivate myself to put in the time to work on it.
Grrrrrrr.

Better late than never...

So yeah. I'm a little late on this observation, but it didn't occur to me in all the excitement end of last month to note it.
It seems like just about anywhere I go out in this town, I see some chick wearing those furry boots. The amount of fur on the outside, or on the inside peeking out, seems to be a completely random decision based on whatever factors the individual wearing them wants to take into account at that time.
These things are a cold-weather item. Ironic that we see them so often in this warm-climate of Texas. A pet peeve of mine I guess.
Well, interesting side-note, while in Indiana, I saw these boots on people just about as frequently as I see them here in Texas BUT it was COLD there. It's the cold-weather clothing in the habitat it was developed for!!!! Novelty really I guess, but amazing nonetheless.
Also, I think I saw actual galoshes on actual feet for the first time ever. Ever.

The vorpal blade goes snicker snack...

Friday looms darkly on the horizon.
The time draws close where I must relinquish yet another decade of my allotted time on this earth to the annals of history.
You go along in your day-to-day existence, working with your head down, paying attention only to what's in front of you until, all of a sudden you look around and realize 3 decades have passed.
I have to get to work on that whole goals section... Maybe start my own bucket list...

The next big step...

March 18th...
My ride to the airport will be here shortly.
Can't eat, stomach too active.
Nervous, scared, excited, anxious.
Lots of preparation has gone into this so far...
Can't wait.

Off the reservation...

Some people make reservations every year that they may or may not stick to.
This year I made an outline of the things I want to change and/or see changed:

1.) Get a new place.
a.) Get more organized at home.
b.) Get a spot to work on minis.
c.) Get painted armies for the games I play.
2.) Get Casey here.
a.) Get her a job.
3.) Get in better shape.
a.) Physically.
b.) Mentally/Emotionally.
4.) Write Something.
a.) Minis game.
b.) Flesh out the world for novels.
c.) Novel
d.) Supplement material on the world of Balance for Lore Forge.

Update to the outline so far:
1.) Done
1a.) Working on...
Daniel ( the roommate that is staying) and I have cleaned up the house, moved the living room around so that we have more space now, built a shelf to house my movies and TV shows on dvd (instead of using Wendy's French Fry boxes), created a dining area, complete with table and chairs, and I bought a dry erase board that we can leave and/or keep notes on.
The other roommate, Chris, as soon as we move him out (this weekend) will create a void in the house that can easily be filled by more projects like:
1b.) and 1c.) These will be covered by converting my current room into a workspace/computer room after I move into the master bedroom.
2.) This will be accomplished during my 'Vacation to Indiana' which begins in 18 days.
2a.) I think she has begun calling around the local hospitals and whatnots here in the hopes of at least getting some contact info for HR people or dept. managers.
3.) No real work on this yet. at all.
4.) Does a blog count? (Not really)
I think these will be easier when I am A.) Not spending all my time on the computer playing games with Casey in an effort to have 'together time' despite our geographic distance from each other, and B.) settled into a room that actually has something of a 'work here' feel about it once we get the study or w/e up and running. (Once again necessitating that Chris get moved out, and soon.)

So yeah, my update on 2008.

Feb 14th 2008

So yeah, never really had any of my former relationships happen in or around February. I'm more of a spring/summer lover I guess.
But now, I got a girl, and its Feb 14th.
So I went out and got her a gift. Something to show, one nerd to another, how much I care.
With any luck, she'll get it today...
Oh yeah... 32 Days.

Tuesday Morning...

I'd rather be in bed still.
Paid rent yesterday for the first time officially, and I have a New goal now: Buy 2 duplexes.
Duplex 1: Live in half, rent out the 2nd half to make the house payment.
Duplex 2: Set mom and Alec up in half of it, rent out the 2nd half to make the house payment.
Bulldoze Mom's house and rebuild it.
Yup, that looks about right. Guess I'll chalk that one up on the board next to owning my own bar, writing a well-received series of fantasy novels and becoming a tabletop war-game developer.

In a related note: 34 Days left...

And last, for some humor, Here are links to BRK's Airman Howell stories:
Sticky Note
ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection)
B and E
Nuclear Styrofoam
Good Stuff from a fellow WoW-player, and former Airman.

VISIT MAH CITAH

Visit my City.
BlackBeardBay
Every time someone visits it, it gets more people.
More people means more options, like industry and security.

I figure, if it look like I'm not going to get a good presidential candidate, or at least one that shares my beliefs on what we need to do for America, then at least I can rule my own little piece of the internet.

Ooo, also... My New Prediction, hehe: GOD's Ticket for America
Mitt Romney - Republican Presidential Candidate
Mike Huckabee - Republican Vice Presidential Candidate

I can definitely see these guys trying something like this.
Doubt highly they will, but it would be humorous.

Whatever happens, don't vote Hilary. Obama, McCain, Romney, Your Dead Great-Grandmother...
Anyone, just not that evil harpy who is hell-bent on legislating the hell out of my Video Games.

Randling (Random Rambling)

Income Tax and withholding. Evil.

Intaxication - The short-lived euphoria gained by receiving your tax refund.
This rapidly evaporates when you realize it was your money to begin with.

Scientology.
Okay, its humorous. South Park makes it funny.
But this is scary stuff man.
Google Steven Fishman (recommended, as this is seriously fascinating in an 'Oh my god, how is this catching on/being transmitted, how do people believe this stuff' type way)
or watch the Tom Cruise vid at Gawker.
Seriously intriguing and frightening stuff.