Urrggghhhhh

Otherwise know as the oligatory over-reacting to a touch of flu post! Yeah I'm ill, and it sucks to be ill at this time of year, especially as I'm due to head over my parents house tomorrow morning (though I'm tempted to go today as I can catch a bus if I do so). It started with a thumping headache on Wednesday which brought on dizziness and vomiting, and pretty much confined me to bed for the whole day. While my body knackered itself out sorting them out, it seems flu crept in unnoticed and managed to establish a beachhead that my tired immune system is now having some diffculty in dislodging.

This particular strain of flu seems to have been concocted with a peverse sense of humour though as it is keeping me drowsy and craving sleep, and yet I cannot sleep. I just lie there for hours staring at the inside of my eyelids. I've been awake since about 3am currently as I got fed up or trying to sleep and though maybe an hour or two being awake would make me nod off... so far no luck.

Thankfully Gareth is off out to the shops, so I've thrust a tenner in his hand and begged him to drop by Boots chemists and pick me up a bottle of Covonia cough medicine, which is the rough equvalent of declaring nuclear war on this flu. It is by far the foulest tasting and most powerful cough medicine I know of, the taste is akin to gargling with petrol, but by golly does it work!

Really hoping to get some of that down my neck, sort this damn cough out and hopefully the drowsiness too, get a nap in and then decide whether to head over my parents house today or leave it to tomorrow morning.

My Only Wish This Year

Here is the second in my short list of newer Xmas songs that I'm really fond of. I'm not a fan of Britney Spears really, and find the woman's personal life (and her habit of flaunting it and then bemoaning press intrusion into her "private" life) to be quite distasteful and more than a touch hypocritical. That said this is a cracking song, which has some real power behind it.

My Only Wish This Year by Britney Spears

Last night I took a walk in the snow.
Couples holding hands, places to go
Seems like everyone but me is in love.

Santa can you hear me
I signed my letter that I sealed with a kiss
I sent it off
It just said this
I know exactly what I want this year.
Santa can you hear me.
I want my baby (baby, yeah)
I want someone to love me someone to hold me.
Maybe (maybe, maybe maybe.) he'll be all my own in a big red bow

Santa can you hear me?
I have been so good this year and all I want is one thing
Tell me my true love is near
He's all I want, just for me underneath my christmas tree
I'll be waiting here.
Santa thats my only wish this year.
oohhh ohh yeah
Christmas Eve I just can't sleep
Would I be wrong for taking a peek?
Cause I heard that your coming to town

Santa can you hear me? (yea yeah)
Really hope that your on your way
With something special for me in your sleigh
Ohh please make my wish come true
Santa can you hear me
I want my baby (baby)
I want someone to love me someone to hold me
Maybe (maybe maybe) we'll be all the love under the mistletoe

Santa can you hear me
I have been so good this year
And all I want is one thing
Tell me my true love is near
He's all I want just for me
Underneath my christmas tree
I'll be waiting here santa thats my only wish this year
I hope my letter reaches you in time
Bring me love can call all mine
(yeah yeah) cause I have been so good this year.

Can't be alone under the mistletoe
He's all want and a big red bow
Santa can you hear me (hear me?)
I have been so good this year
And all i want is one thing
Tell me my true love is near
He's all I want. just for me
Underneath my christmas tree
I'll be waiting here (ohh yeah) santa thats my only wish this year
Oh santa can u hear me? oh santa
Well hes all I want just for me underneath my Christmas tree
Oh I'll be waiting here
Santa thats my only wish this year.

Painting Update

Well my painting proceeds slowly but surely. I have abandoned the attempt to try and get a good score on Cool Mini or Not for this year, took too long a break mid year in painting to be able to catch up and improve my skills enough for that to remain a feasible goal, so that's now one for 2012. I've found that I am very good at starting projects and not so hot on finishing them, however, I now am in the position that I'm running out of room on my painting desk for any new start-up's, so I aim to finish a bunch of figures for my Space Marine Army so as to free up some room, and also because it's looking likely that our group of  friends will be getting some games together soon, there's been talk of a league being formed and I'm determined to be able to field a fully painted army right from the start.

Thus far I have finished painting the following:

• A 5 man Terminator Squad. Not happy with them as had not really finalised my army colour scheme when I painted them, so they will do, for now, but will be replaced in time.
• A 10 man Tactical Squad. Very happy with these.
• An Emperor's Champion. Mostly happy with this guy, could have turned out better, but he will suffice. He is going to be one of my Chapter Master's honour guards.

I am in the process of painting the following:

• A Techmarine with Servo Harness.
• A 10 man Tactical Squad.
• A Chapter Master (Pedro Kantor figure) and 2 honour guards.
• A Predator Tank.
• A Whirlwind Tank.
• A Razorback Tank.
• A Chaplain in Terminator Armour.
• Captain Lysander.

And I have the following to assemble & paint up still:

• A 10 man Assault Squad.
• A 5 man Scout Squad.
• 2x 10 man Devastator Squads.
• 2x Rhino Tanks.
• A Razorback Tank.
• A Contemptor-pattern Dreadnought.
• A Space Marine Attack Bike.
• A 6 man Sternguard Veteran Squad.

All in all a pretty formidable force and one I'm hoping will be up to the challenges that will be posed by battling against Tony's Tau, Emil's Ultramarines, Charlie's Dark Eldar, Valda's Ork's, Richie's Eldar, Mike's Tyranids and Lee's Imperial Guards. I'm certainly not going to lack for variety in my opponents!

Scrooge

Back when I first started this blog, I marked that December by posting lyrics to my favourite Christmas songs in a series of blog entries. Since then I've heard and grown to love a couple more such songs, so here's one of them, from the amazing movie The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Scrooge by The Muppets

When a cold wind blows it chills you
Chills you to the bone
But there's nothing in nature that freezes your heart
Like years of being alone

It paints you with indifference
Like a lady paints with rouge
And the worst of the worst, the most hated and cursed
Is the one that we call Scrooge
Unkind as any, and the wrath of many
This is Ebenezer Scrooge

Oh, there goes Mr. Humbug
There goes Mr. Grim
If they gave a prize for being mean
The winner would be him
Old Scrooge, he loves his money
Cause he thinks it gives him power
If he became a flavour you can bet he would be sour

There goes Mr. Skinflint
There goes Mr. Greed
The undisputed master of the underhanded deed
He charges folks a fortune for his dark and drafty houses
Us poor folk live in misery
It's even worse for mouses
(Please sir, I want some cheese)

He must be so lonely, he must be so sad
He goes to extremes to convince us he's bad
He's really a victim of fear and of pride
Look close and there must be a sweet man inside
(Nah . . . uh uh)

There goes Mr. Outrage
There goes Mr. Sneer
He has no time for friends or fun
His anger makes that clear
Don't ask him for a favour cause his nastiness increases
No crust of bread for those in need
No cheeses for us meeces

There goes Mr. Heartless
There goes Mr. Cruel
He never gives, he only takes
He lets his anger rule
If being mean's a way of life you practice and rehearse
Then all that work is paying off, cause Scrooge is getting worse
Every day in every way
Scrooge is getting worse

Time For Some Movie Quotes!

Not done one of these in ages and there have been lots of good movies released since, so without further ado, here are some of my favourite lines from a few of them:

Conan the Barbarian (2011)


Conan: You have a name?
Tamara: Tamara Amalia Jorvi-Karashan. And yours?
Conan: Conan.
Tamara: [pause] Conan... that's it?
Conan: How many names do I need?

Conan: Run from me... and I will tear apart the mountains to find you! I will follow you to Hell!

Conan: No man should live in chains.

Corin: When a Cimmerian feels thirst, it is a thirst for blood. When he feels cold, it is the cold edge of steel. For the courage of a Cimmerian is tempered: he neither fears death... nor rushes foolishly to meet it. To be a Cimmerian warrior, you must have both cunning and balance as well as speed and strength.

Stardust (2007)

Yvaine: What do stars do? They shine.

Yvaine: You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn't true. I know a lot about love. I've seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars. Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I'm trying to say, Tristan is... I think I love you. Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it's trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I'd wish for nothing in exchange - no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine.

[to Ditchwater Sal after she has turned Tristan into a mouse]
Yvaine: Would I be correct in thinking that you can neither see nor hear me? Then I'd like to tell you that you smell of pee. You look like the wrong end of a dog. And I swear, if I don't get my Tristan back as he was, I'll be your personal poltergeist!

[Shakespeare and his men are selling collected lightning bolts to Ferdy, their fence]
Captain Shakespeare: So! Name your best price.
Ferdy the Fence: For 10,000 bolts?
Captain Shakespeare: 10,000 bolts of finest quality Grade A.
Ferdy the Fence: Yeah, but it's difficult to shift, isn't it? Difficult to store. If I get the revenue man in here sniffing around. Uhmmm... Best price: 150 Guineas.
Captain Shakespeare: [to his crew] Gentlemen, put the merchandise back on board and prepare to sail.
Ferdy the Fence: Whoa, whoa! Hold on. Hold on. One minute, Cuddles. 160? 160.
Captain Shakespeare: Seeing as I'm feeling particularly generous today, I'll settle for 200.
Ferdy the Fence: 200? Okay, you're having a laugh.
[Ferdy laughs]
Ferdy the Fence: Have you had your head in that? Has he been staying up where the air's too thin?
Captain Shakespeare: [darkly] You're being very rude.
Ferdy the Fence: Not any more.
Captain Shakespeare: 200.
Ferdy the Fence: 180.
Captain Shakespeare: 200.
Ferdy the Fence: That's not negotiation! I'm changing my number! 185.
Captain Shakespeare: Did I hear 200?
Ferdy the Fence: From you, you did. Yeah.
Captain Shakespeare: You said 200?
Ferdy the Fence: If I did, you're a ventriloquist. Okay, 195. Final offer.
Captain Shakespeare: 195 it is.
[they shake hands to seal the deal]
Captain Shakespeare: So, with sales tax, that's... let's see... 200.
Ferdy the Fence: [resignedly] Brilliant. Put it in the back.


Thor (2011)

Agent Coulson: [interrogating Thor] It's not easy to do what you did. You made my men, some of the most highly trained professionals in the world look like a bunch of minimum-wage mall cops. In my experience, it takes someone who's received similar training to do what you did to them. Why don't you tell me where you received that training? Afghanistan, Chechnya? No, you strike me more as the soldier of fortune type. Who are you?

Agent Cale: [staring at The Destroyer] Is that one of Stark's?
Agent Coulson: I don't know. Guy never tells me anything.

Thor: This mortal form grows weak. I require sustenance!

Thor: Once I retrieve Mjolnir, I will return to you the items they stole from you. Deal?
Jane Foster: No. You think you're gonna just walk in and walk out ?
Thor: No. I'm gonna fly out.

Clint Barton: Do you want me to take him down or would you rather send in more guys for him to beat up?

Thor: [walking into a pet shop] I need a horse!
Pet Store Clerk: We don't have horses. Just dogs, cats, birds.
Thor: Then give me one of those large enough to ride.

Clint Barton: You better call it Coulson, cause I'm starting to root for this guy.

[Thor approaches the Destroyer]
Thor: Brother, forgive me for whatever wrong I did to you. But these people are innocent, taking their lives will gain you nothing. So take mine.

Jane Foster: So is this how you normally look?
Thor: More or less.
Jane Foster: It's a good look!

Unemployed

So I got sacked from my job in the supermarket last on Friday... I knew it was coming. I suffer with migraines and now and then they cause me to have to take a day off work sick to deal with them. Rarely am I off work longer than a day, sometimes two. But the days still add up. The company had policy of 4% sickness over a rolling 12 month period. My sickness rate went over that and the disciplinary track began. First came a verbal warning, then a written one and then a final written one. The final written got reissued too, but when I got the migraine 1.5 weeks ago on the Wednesday night and it kept me awake all night, unable to sleep, well I had a lot of time to think (even though thinking hurt).

I phoned in sick on the Thursday morning and spent the day mostly asleep, eating next to nothing because I had no appetite, my migraines are probably the only thing that robs me of my appetite. I drank water, took painkillers and slept and I thought I had it beaten. So much so that I was in work on the Friday morning. The migraine had become merely a mild headache and I felt safe to go to work. I was wrong. It came back with a vengeance and I was sick in the customer mens toilets and was then sent home. I didn't return to work until the Wednesday as I spent Saturday off ill recuperating, and Sunday-Tuesday were my days off anyway.

When I returned to work I knew I would have a back to work chat with one of the managers. I knew at it they would issue me with a summons to a disciplinary hearing which I had figured would be on the Friday. It was. Friday 30th September at 12:00 noon. I took my good friend and work colleague Richard Adams along as my witness, even though I knew what was most likely going to happen and didn't really want a witness there for it. Still considering how long the interval in the hearing was while the Store Manager and Personnel Manager adjorned to decide what to do, I was very glad to have him there to talk too.

I was told that I was being dismissed (which I had expected, so much so that I'd cleared out my locker the day before). At the time of my dismissal against a company policy of 4%, my sickness for the 12 month stood at 5.28%. I said a few goodbyes as I made my way out of the store, but only a few. Some weren't in that day, some were and I couldn't find them. I made my way home and resolved to take the weekend off work and start looking afresh on Monday.

I didn't go looking on Monday. I spent most of the day filling out the Jobseeker's Allowance forms on the internet instead and then I ran my weekly Pathfinder RPG game in the evening, followed by the urge to write this. From somewhere now I need to find it within myself to motivate myself, something I've struggled to do for ohh so long. I have brains, I have the ability to use them, I'm just extremely bad at caring enough about myself to want to do so. I'd move mountains if I could to help others, but I have nothing but contempt and loathing for myself.

A Goal...

 It's always important to have one, else what do you have to strive towards?

 With that in mind I've set myself a goal with regards to my painting skills. My favourite miniature painter is a Russian lady by the name of Natalya Melnik, who goes by the handle of Alexi Z online. She has many figures listed on Cool Mini Or Not (and many more that are just as impressive on her homepage). Her highest rated figure is a lofty 9.8 out of 10. My highest rated figure is a palty 4.4 by comparison.

 It would be an utterly insane and impossible challenge to equal her best by years end, so instead I'm setting myself the target to equal her worst score which is a 6.7. She got this score incidentally for the first figure she ever painted! Whether the figure in question deserves a 6.7 rating is doubtful to my thinking, I'd rate it a 5.5 myself, but that is it's score and so that is my challenge.

Stocking Up

 Since I got back into painting a couple months back, I've been slowly but surely updating my set up for it. I used to paint on a fold-up dining table which was a bit wobbly and hardly ideal. That is now down in the lounge and I've replaced it with a rather more sturdy wooden table that I bought at the British Heart Foundation's furniture shop, and then enlisted Tony's help to carry it the short distance back to the house. That was the easy part really compared to the far larger task of sorting out my paints & tools.

 I use paints by Games Workshop as they are the most readily availiable to me (Krackers Games Store that sell them is only a 3 min walk from my house after all). They are not the best paints, and most of the best painters whose work I admire, use other ranges such as those by Vallejo or Reaper instead. Maybe someday I'll consider such a change myself, but for the time being at least GW's range suits me fine.

Back when I began painting at the tender age of 12, GW used to sell their paints in themed box sets. Each box had 9 different paints in and the boxes were named for the figures they were best designed for (Colour being the basic set and then from there, there were others like Monster, Creature, Space Marine, Metallics etc etc). They were good paints, and each time I'd lose interest in painting I'd pack them away and keep them safe until whenever my interest returned and I'd unpack them and they'd be used again. As time went by though, they got thicker and thicker and one by one they turned solid and became useless.

This time when I set about unpacking them again, I stopped and instead made myself go through every box, testing each and every paint in them and I finally binned all the useless ones, destroying the old boxes as each was emptied. I was able to keep a fairly impressive number of paints, many of which are long since unavaliable such as the metallic blue, green and purple paints I have, and the shocking pink. But my collection is left with some pretty massive gaps in it too and so each pay day I've been getting a few more paints to fill out the range. Today I added Bronze, a dark shade of Gold, a dark Flesh and a black wash to my growing collection to plug gaps that I've noticed over the past couple weeks whilst painting the figures I'm currently working on.

I've also had to take a look at the tools I use. I know now that I need a new set of paintbrushes as the ones I have are cheap and don't hold a good point (the tip always curves into a claw, which while sometimes useful is annoying too). My modelling knife needs replacing and if I don't want my table top getting scored up I need a decent cutting mat too. The biggest issue that I've found I need to resolve though is lighting, and for that I'm going to need to go hunt for a good angle-poise light, as the light from my rooms central bulb is simply not sufficient, and I refuse to allow my painting times to be dictated to me by the hours of daylight.

I've also bought a supply of materials to decorate the bases of my figures, namely a couple types of sand, small pebbles and clumps of fake grass. I'm a long way from being able to craft some of truly stunning bases I've seen made for miniatures on Cool Mini Or Not, but even these basic materials will be a great leap forward from simply coating the base with green paint and dipping it in flock as I've always done in the past.

Sticking My Neck Out

Anyone who knows me well will know that I'm not one for drawing attention to myself. I'm a definate introvert and am usually the guy sat in a corner being quiet at parties etc. At work I like to just be able to get on with it and not have to answer questions about what I'm doing and why (which is why I adore my co-worker Becky as she's brilliant at handling all of that sort of thing, leaving me to just get on and make cakes in peace). But there is this teeny tiny bit of me that craves a bit of praise. Not much. I'm not greedy, a "Well done" once in a while goes a very long way with me.

So with that in mind I've taken the step of posting pictures of some of the miniatures I've painted in the past, and will post more of the ones I'm working on now once I have them done. I have posted these up on Facebook for my friends to see, and also on a new account I've made on Cool Mini Or Not for everyone in the world to take a look at them, rate them and comment on them. I am looking forward to their criticism and comments, as I want to improve at this hobby and part of that development is taking on board ideas and techniques from my peers.

If you wish to have a look at my work and rate it, then have a look here. My username there is Mr.Flibble. I'd ask you to be kind in whatever you choose to write/rate them as, but thats not really what I'm aiming for by doing this, so instead I'll ask you to be honest. Flattery won't help me to get better after all.

Phew... Done At Last

Tagging every post I've written in the past 6 years or thereabouts that I've been writing this blog on and off took a lot longer than I thought it would. Still, all done now, so you can now look through the blog archive much easier than before. Bedtime for me now as I have work in about 6 hours time.

A Whole New Look

So I thought that since I was gonna have a go at this blogging lark again, it was about time I gave this place a bit of a spruce up, as after 6 years it was looking kinda dated. So I picked out this rather nifty looking template from the selection that blogger offer, customised it a bit by adding in my links, and moving things about and this is what I've ended up with thus far.

I'll likely tweak it a bit more until I'm happy with it. I'd like to put the nice header pic I had on the old blog on this one, might get it tarted up a bit first though, maybe add a decorative edge to it or something. I am pleased to be able to have the section of Tags though, which will make navigating around this blogs archive a lot easier... or at least it will once I've finished tagging all the posts in the archive anyway!

Painting

So... what to write about... I'll start I guess with what has consumed much of my time of late and that's painting. Painting minature figures that is, not painting on canvas or any such related forms of art for which I entirely lack the skillsets required. I've painted before, a fair few times now in fact, only to eventually lose interest or have something come up and it all get packed away again and not see daylight then for months or even years afterwards.

I started painting figures back when I was about 12 years old and a friend of mine called Ashley introduced me to a board game called Blood Bowl. He also intrioduced me to Dungeons & Dragons too, so he has quite a lot to answer for considering the geek I turned out to be! Getting back to the subject at hand, Blood Bowl is a fantasy version of american football with a lot more violence (it ain't called Blood Bowl for nothing!), played with teams of figures. As the rulebooks showed nicely painted up versions of these figures, I was soon buying a set of paints, a couple brushes and having a go myself.

I was also interested in a another board game called Advanced Heroquest, which too featured miniature figures and so they too went under the brush for some added colour. This led to my interest in the tabletop wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB), where instead of a few figures, you assembled and painted whole armies of them! I can remember collecting a sizeable army of Dwarf's and then later a smaller force of Undead. For another such game (Epic 40,000) I collected a huge Chaos force complete with Titan's (massive towering war machines). I later either sold (Dwarfs & Undead) or lost (Epic Chaos) these armies and my interest waned and eventually died off. I never lost interest in the games exactly, just in the painting side of it.

Fast forward a few years and a new edition of Blood Bowl came out and a league was started at the local Games Club and so I got back into it, painting up my beloved Chaos All Star team (which I still own). I also started on a Chaos army for WFB but never got that far on it, and most of the figures remain unpainted to this day in their boxes atop my bookcases. Over the next few years I'd regain interest for a months or two and then it would fade away. I painted up numerous character models for D&D in this time, and started work on a massive project to build a Tarrasque for D&D (which was never finished and eventually binned). Then a few years back I packed it all up and put it away. I was tempted now and then to take it up again over the years but never did so, until recently.

See a couple of my friends mentioned that they were getting in to Warhammer 40,000, a sci-fi version of WFB and a game I'd long wanted to try but had always shied away from for various reasons. But I was tempted to try again, so I took the plunge. I bought myself a decent desk this time to paint at (an old wooden kitchen table, a steal for just £40), some new paints and brushes, sorted through all the old paints I still had and binned any that were no longer useable, keeping those that were (a surprisingly large number including some awesome paints such as metallic blue, green & purple and also truly shocking shade of pink).

I also decided on an army and forked out for a fair number of figures and sets (getting double the number due to a fortunate mix up in the mail!) for a Space Marine army. I've settled on the Imperial Fists as my chapter as they both look good in their yellow and red armor and their backstory and such rocks. When I have photos of finished models I'll post them on the blog.

In addition to them I've gone through my stock of unpainted figures and dragged a few out into the light of day to have a go at, as I enjoy painting characters and individuals far more than units of troops.

Tweaking

As a start I've updated the list of links on the sidebar, many of which were horribly out of date. They should all work now and are once again relevant to my current interests.

Hmmm...

Been a while since I posted anything on here and for the life of me I can't think why I lost interest in this site. Not sure what I'll post here but I'd rather not leave this field fallow any longer.