40K

Who needs 401(k) when you got 40K? Seriously. In the grim dark future there is only war, and a 401(k) won't impress those Dark Eldar raiders very much, now will it?

But a good Bolter will.

I've set up shop in my basement to begin painting my Warhammer 40K Army. I've got two projects going, one of which is to remain a mystery until its unveiling. Suffice it to say that not many hobbies are as harmless or enjoyable as this.

Because I have killer cats in the house, I got a covered box from Target for placing the figures in between sessions, and a plastic tray (also from Target) to put my paint pots in. I still need to grab an old mug to use for water (for cleaning the brushes) and something to mix paints in (I used to use those little metal lids from paints you paint plastic models with). They sell empty pots for $1.50 to use to mix your paints in but they're a little deep for my liking. I prefer something shallow (like Sarah Palin) so I'll have to hunt around and find something. I've been making do with whatever I can find until now and I need something of a more permanent nature. Maybe I'll just use caps from 20 oz. soft drinks.

The lighting isn't optimal down there either so I need to get hold of a desk lamp. But I can't continue to use the kitchen table. I miss having cats that don't try to eat my stuff. These two are of inferior gene stock.

Oh, I also picked up a nice set of files - 12 of them - to use on the metal figures. I need to get a little pair of clippers too. The files are nice. My old sets only had 3-4 files in it, and I was going to buy the Games Worskshop set for $12.00 (which also has just four files) when the kind gentleman running the store directed me towards another brand that gives you twelve files for $12.99. A much better deal! And they came in useful already.

I bought a load of Warhammer paints, nine colors that I really needed. I love these paints. Vibrant colors and you don't have to mess with solvents like you did with the old modeling paints (the caps, as I said, were the only useful thing to come out of those). I know that Selkie can verify my words with regards to Games Workshop paints.

Now that the dark time of the year is coming (love watching those leaves fall!) I will be spending far less time out of doors and so will be directing my attentions inward, working on the websites, blogging, the forums, and of course, my 40K army.

Tiw's Day

I think I finally have this blog pretty much set up to my satisfaction. I have to keep in mind that this is my personal space. I have a place for politics and another for religion and I even set one up for fantasy football. But here I can talk about any old thing I want, which is kind of freeing. For two long Heathen's Day had to be host to whatever whim I put it to.

I spent most of the morning catching up on my blogging and on responding to news stories on digg, and arguing with a few conservative die-hards along the way. I also did today's post on Restitutor Orbis, a little earlier than I generally do, but there was a lot to report already today and I can always post an update later for breaking news.

I also played Star Wars Battlefront (the first one) with my little boy on XBox. He really enjoys that and it's a little more enjoyable for me to have somebody to play with, even if he doesn't actually shoot too many bad guys. I kind of got the boot today, though. He told me he wanted to take a break, at which point I hear familiar sounds coming from the livingroom and discover that he's STILL playing, but without me. So apparently, the break was from papa. I told him I thought he was taking a break and he got all grumpy on me, like he'd been caught out. He got even grumpier when I told him I wasn't going to play his TMNT game with him. I'm very tired of that particular game and especially the sound effects.

I've been nursing a headache since Saturday and I'm really hoping it will finally go away. Makes it hard to do anything when the side of your head is throbbing. I have more I want to do on Mos Maiorum, like updating the articles to include the new CSS for footnotes, but that's going to be hard until the headache is gone. The same goes for painting that Dark Eldar army I was talking about the other day. I did find those nice illustrations on the Games Workshop site so at least I have some ideas how to paint them. My old Dark Eldar army was red with black. Not sure what I'll use this time. I'm thinking some black and purple like the Baltimore Ravens. Very ominous.

And speaking of football, I have my fantasy football blog set up, or at least partly set up, as I noted above. I'm going to have a site to host statistics but I thought it would be fun to blog a little about it. I've wanted to but have generally restrained myself from posting ff info on Heathen's Day. Obviously, I won't be doing a lot with it until things get going during the off-season (particularly the draft). I put a little NFL widget on it for news updates. I can add more once the season gets going again. Until then I plan to post a little on strategy, etc, but there is no rush.

Back to the grind!

Super Sunday

It's Super Bowl day again. I like no longer having to work Sundays. I missed so many classic Super Bowls between 1983-2004 that it saddens me still. I like that I've been able to enjoy the last three at least. It helps to have teams to vote for and I got lucky this time. I'm a Cardinal fan but if the Steelers win I still get to see history made (six wins for one franchise) so I'm not going to be terribly saddened either way.

I'm not going to watch much of the hype leading up to it. I've seen a couple episodes of NFL Total Access this week and that's probably enough for any human, with all the player interviews during Media Day and the analysis of various former players. I can understand the cause of the hype but it almost makes the game itself anti-climactic so I tend to enjoy the spectacle more without.

I've been trying to get some blogging done today as well as connect to more blog groups or catalogs to increase traffic. It's not something I've spent a lot of time or effort on until recently but now that I have Mos Maiorum up and running I feel the need to work a little more at it. It still does not qualify as active searching but it's a little more pro-active to put yourself out there than to just sit back and wait for people to show up. I feel Mos Maiorum's message is important and I do want to reach as many as possible, or at least make myself as "findable" as possible in the time I have available (which is never enough).

Going back to entertainment, we saw Underworld: Rise of the Lycans yesterday and it was great. Awesome combat sequences, decent acting and dialogue, good special efforts and a good score as well. I'd give it a 4-4.5 out of 5. It's nice to have some of the background to the series and the end of the movie ties the whole thing together rather nicely. It left me wanting to watch the first two movies and I'll probably do that this week, time permitting, while the movie is still fresh in my mind.



I am also going to try to find a few spare moments to paint up some Dark Eldar figures for Warhammer 40K. I used to play that as well as Bloodbowl but after losing my Dark Eldar army in a fire I didn't do it anymore. But I've a friend now who had some spare Dark Eldar figures from before he decided to go Space Marine so he gave those to me. There are a couple of nice figures in the set, including a Dracon, a Sybarite with blades and a Sybarite with a whip. I will probably try to add some Wyches as well to stiffen the spines of the rank and file. I'm not certain how many points I need to have in my army so I have to get with my friend to find out what they usually play with. It will be fun to get back into it again.