I like to read!

I'm still feeling run down due to the bug I have, so this will be another short post.

Next week I'll be flying out to Atlanta for Dragon*Con. If you read the previous posts you'll know I had a lot of fun at last year's convention. I plan on doing so again this year but to avoid some of the disappointments I had last year, I've refrained from checking out the Guest lists for this year. I know of one or two people who will be there due to accidental spoilers but other than that I'm completely in the dark.

One of the people I've been told will be there is an author that a lot of my friends like but whom I had never read . . . . till now. She has a series of 20 books that I'm about half way through thanks to my local library and I hope to have finished by the time I meet her. 10 books to go? I'm going through a book every day and the weekend should get 3-4 out of the way. I think I can do it.

Tomorrow I'll be posting my reactions to the guest list, hope you tune in.

And why the hell not?!!

Down with a sickness

Ok so I missed Fridays post and almost missed today's, but I'll do an extra post either Tuesday or Thursday to make up.

I caught something somewhere, it could have been my sick friend, it could have been my sick relatives, it could have been from walking round in the rain the week end before last, I'm not sure where but I've a annoyingly bad cold. It's mainly in my chest but I'm starting to get the head symptoms too. I picked up some meds which the pharmacist reckoned were the best for my situation. So I've been dosing myself with them at the appropriate hours. It's the congested chest and cough that get me the most.

I knew a guy who had undergone a heart and lung transplant, he told me the worst part was bringing up someone else's phlegm. I've just been told I probably shouldn't have shared that story.

And why the hell not?!!

Come fly with me!

I love airports, I really do. Maybe it's from my childhood when we would go out to meet people coming home, or say goodbye to those leaving again and we'd usually end up getting a McDonalds on the way home. Whatever the reason I tend to get a thrill when I go to one, they always seem to have a happy energy to me anyway.

I think Kevin Smith nailed it in the establishing scene in Dogma??? If you don't remember it, here's an except from the script:

]---------------------------------[

LOKI

Now here's what I don't get about you: why do you feel the need to come
here all the time?

BARTLEBY

(off travelers)

I like to watch. This is humanity at it's best. Look at them.

**A reunited family share a group hug and move on, making way for two young
lovers to embrace and kiss passionately.**

OC BARTLEBY

All that tension, all that anger and mistrust, forgotten for one perfect
moment when they come off that plane. See those two? The guy doesn't even
know that the girl cheated on him while he was away.

OC LOKI

She did?

**Bartleby and Loki continue to watch the arrivals.**

BARTLEBY

Uh-huh. Twice. But it doesn't matter at this moment because they're both so
relieved to be with one another. I like that. I just wish they could all
feel that way more often.

]---------------------------------[


I've seen that scene played out dozens of times while I've walked through the Arrivals area. The last time, it was a girl waiting for her boyfriend, she was standing there on her mobile to him waiting for him to clear customs. And she had a couple of coffees balanced on top of each other so they could share a drink. I liked that . . . . made me a little warm and fuzzy inside.

So I'm a romantic, I'm ok with that, . . . . aren't you?

And why the hell not?!!

And then what happened??

First off, I didn't miss the schedule, I had most of this written yesterday but it wouldn't post. So I've added in a bit about last night.

Ok so when I last left you I was supposed to starting a gaming session . . . . but that didn't happen. After cooking our dinner, me spending a fair bit of time blogging and showing the GM an awesome Slam Poet named Taylor Mali (look him up on youtube and watch as many of his readings as you can. My top 3 are "What do teachers make?", "I'll fight you for the Library!" and "Tony Steinberg: Brave Viking Warrior" we had used up too much time and neither of us felt we would have been able to give the game anywhere near our full attention.

So at around midnight he said he'll drop me home. I made sure I have all my gear and headed for the door when I heard him shout from upstairs "You've made a mistake!". I did a quick pat down trying to figure out if I left something up there but I couldn't think of anything missing. So I called back up to him "What did I do this time?" He made his way down the stairs and told me "I'm up now . . . . we're going dancing!" And I said ". . . . ok". We drove into town (which so the opposite direction to my house) and parked in Temple Bar to go into a Bar called the Garage.

We met up with one of the girls from earlier and were there till closing. I did get up to dance . . . but only for one or two songs. (I'm not a big dancer) I sat for a bit, chatted with my friends when they were there and watched the communal pile o'stuff when they weren't. Eventually I got home and stayed up chatting with Nazu till my folks left around 6:30am for a ferry and then I went to bed.

The rest of the weekend was less eventful, I was meeting up with some of my American relatives that are over visiting. We met up, got some pizza and then walked to The Cobblestone in Smithfield as they have a trad session that was recommended to my Cousins. We stayed for a round or two there, before heading over to Temple Bar on the insane mission of trying to find a decent pub that wasn't packed, played decent music (at a reasonable volume) and had somewhere to sit.

This proved to be a tricky task. We stopped briefly into the Auld Dubliner, ended up walking down Fleet St to Westmoreland St before doubling back up Dame St and stopping in the CitiBar for a round. After leaving the CitiBar, we tried to find a bar that one of the Girls had been in on one of her previous visits. She couldn't remember the name of it, or exactly where it was, so I had to work off of a vague description. But we were eventually successful (turned out it was the Mezz) and we got into the bar for what was our last stop of the night.

Sunday was thankfully even more relaxing. I had planned on bringing my Cousins on the Viking Splash Tour which is a fun spin round Dublin city pointing some of the historical landmarks in an ex WWII amphibious vehicle. Unfortunately the tours for Sunday were all sold out. After I rang my cousins to let them make other plans I killed some time in the City before heading home. Once I got home I just chilled, took a shower, cooked a meal and watched some movies while practicing on a Guitar. I was glad of the rest.

Monday was a hellish day in work, the phones wouldn't stop ringing and it was a constant stream of calls, though that does make for a faster day. Once I finished up I confirmed plans with my Cousins to do a session of Karaoke in the Ukiyo Bar. So there was a bit of madness (they tricked me into singing Madonna . . . . . yeaaaah tricked me, that's what happened) for an hour or two before going for a few Drinks in the International Bar.


And why the hell not?!!

Days since last post . . . .. 1

Ok so, so far I'm keeping on track but it's only been a day so it's not all that hard. I've had a fun day realising just how frickin' small this island is. If you don't know I live in Dublin, the glorious Capital (take that Cork!) of Ireland, the Emerald Isle if you will. Today I had planned to meet up with one of my friends before going for a quick gaming session with that awesome GM I mentioned in the last post. She was delayed due to the fantastic Bus service that we have, so I ended up meeting with the GM first and we waited for her together. Once she joined us, we went down to a small chocolate shop for a hot chocolate and ran into one of the couples we knew.

While waiting for our order, we had a great laugh talking amongst ourselves and watching the reactions of the passersby who tended to walk past at the worst possible moment (see the Coyote, law of.) and had no idea what we were talking about. . . . "The best line in Mrs. Doubtfire, 'Brace yourself Effie!'" followed by roars of laughter and a dirty look by a woman walking by. As she went on I had to look to my friends and say "I think her name was Effie?!" Cue more laughter.

One really good time later we finally finished up and went on our way. We stopped in a grocery store and picked up some fixings for Dinner before heading for the Bus. As we reached a set of traffic lights I noticed the girl standing at the lights was the girl who trained me in for my current job. She had left job just before Christmas and this was the first time I had seen her since then. We had a bit of a catch up as we waited for our bus, but she finally had to get on hers and my GM and I went back to his house.

And that's where you find me now. We've just eaten dinner and might just try get into the planned gaming session before the night is out.

And why the hell not?!!

Back to the Blogging!!

Ok so this is the first post in . . . . I don’t know how many months . . . . apologies for the delay but let’s face it no one who reads this is actually screaming for updates. So I’ve decided push myself and post more often . . . . try to gain more readers (not that those who do aren’t appreciated) and see if I can keep to an update schedule. To that end, for the rest of the year, I’m hoping to post on Monday – Wednesday – Friday . To do this I’m probably going to bend one or two of my rules for blogging but c’est la vie.

So unfortunately over the last few months things have been Rollercoaster like for me. I got involved with a girl who was fantastic, and fun, and cute, and made of win and awesome in equal measures, and for a short time life was good. It would have been perfect if she hadn’t recently gotten out of a 10 year relationship and was actually ready to be in another relationship. Now she was completely upfront about things and I made an informed decision to continue on regardless. We had a lot of fun but eventually it got to that point where we couldn’t get that balance . . . . . . it wasn’t enough for me but it was too much for her. So things ended, as amicably as they could, and I’m still licking my wounds from it.

Work has been consistent at least, I’ve been kept busy enough during office hours but nothing has left the office with me. There will always be those frustrations and tensions but I’ve been in worse working environments. While I’m not using my training or preferred skill sets (yet) at least I’ve got my time after hours that will always be “my time”. Speaking of my time let’s talk about gaming!

I’ve been having a lot of fun running an OWoD (Old World of Darkness) Werewolf game with Gogz and Dave and a couple of friends that haven’t been named yet. I like creating Characters and locations for games so I’ve had fun with this. Though I have been known to get carried away . . . . Gogz spent a couple points in the Mentor Background which gave him an NPC (Non Player Character) to contact if he ever needed help outside of the regular avenues. So I started thinking up this guy and as I was making him up I kind of went overboard on his stats and he ended up 2-3 levels higher than he should have been. But I had so much fun that I made up people he’d have known and a plot hook or two that’ll come up. So I had to tell Gogz shortly after “Em . . . Dude, you have 3 extra dots in Mentor.” Of course there were no complaints from him.

Another game I’m playing in is a Dark Heresy LARP (Live Action Role Play) which is run by a fantastic GM. Twenty months in and we’ve gone through about 8 players even more characters (one player is on his third) to the point where there’s only about 3 of the original players who are still on their original characters. It’s an espionage game set in the WarHammer 40K universe dealing with low level assets of the Inquisition. If you like to get an idea of the setting read The Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett . . . . or the Ravenor Trilogy by Dan Abnett . . . . . pretty much anything by Dan Abnett. It’s always a fun game when you fear character death at every turn.

And from gaming we go to Conventions, much less to speak about this year. . . . . I’m counting down the days till Dragon*Con (21 if you’re interested) I don’t know much about who’ll be there this year as I’ve tried to avoid the disappointment that happens when you find out people have dropped out. One name I know will be there is Stan Lee. Only one word for that . . . . Excelsior!!! There will of course be my favourite webcomic artists (Jennie Breeden, Aaron Williams and Pete Abrams to name a few) and I’m hoping to pick up a few more sketches for my Comic Kilt.

And after Dragon*Con there will be the run up to Gaelcon! I’m not on the committee this year but I’ll still be in command of some minions **evil laugh** I don’t know what’s planned for this year but I know it’ll be awesome. More on that as it gets closer to October.
I’m going to wrap up but I’ll leave you with two pieces of advice:

1. Nothing good happens after 2am. (Yeah I heard it on “How I met your Mother” too, but it’s still good to follow)

2. Never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to.

Learn from my mistakes, because I haven’t yet.

And why the hell not?!!

Giant Robot!!!

Thankfully this has nothing to do with Michael Bay . . . . at all!

I've finally gotten round to updating after the New Year. (I've have no Net Access at home at the moment thanks to our ISP) The only thing I left off from the Half Year Review is the construction of a Giant Robot and now it get a post all of it's own. (Photos to follow)

As part of Gaelcon (See last post) our Con Director had the brilliant idea of building a Imperator Titan in Warhammer 40K scale. If your not familiar with the game, most of the models are called miniatures and for good reason. They're small, you can fit armies of them on the dinner table and the Vehicals can fit in the palm of your hand. This would not . . . in game it's a towering engine of destruction, a self contained, mobile, heavily armoured giant robot designed and built solely to destroy it's enemies. Roughly 100ft tall with starship weaponry, it is devestating to those standing in it's way. (I have nerdgasms just thinking about them)

When he first had the idea, my initial reaction was "Awesome . . . I want in." There are many websites out there were people have done it before but we were going to do it bigger and better . . . well not bigger really as it has to be in scale . . . . but definitely better. So after a couple of months I hadn't heard anymore talk about it I decided to talk to the Con Director and see what the latest on it was. His reply was "We've started a couple of months ago" to which I repeated my offer. I had two hands and was willing to do the grunt work. So he gave me the whens and wheres and the following week I tagged in.

When I got to the Assembley Yard (it sounds grander that way) I found they had started on the basic skeleton and had a rough assembly on the legs to hips. I found the size of the legs to be a little deceptive. They were a little over 1 1/2 ft. I must have looked crestfallen because they guys then showed me the model we were using as a reference. I had no idea what were actually building. I had seen some models of Titans in the Warhammer Epic range and thought it would be similiar to those . . . . what I didn't know is that the current editions only do the smaller titans, The Imperator looked monstrous compared to them. It could be roughly broken into three sections, Legs and lower body, upper body and the citadel. The Citadel was an unknown to me . . . it rested on the Imperator's hunched shoulders, and has several towers and turrets which bring the total height of it to roughly 4 1/2 ft. On top of the tallest tower there rests a (to quote my favourite Colonel, if you can't recognise the quote then get off my blog!) Big Honking SpaceGun!

So we had building sessions once a week for the months before Gaelcon but as it got closer and we realised we had more and more to do we started have more sessions when we could. Towards the end of it I had spent and entire weekend working on it except for a short break when we had to go to a Committee Meeting. But it was an Adventure and an Experience to say the least. When we started I told the lads I'd do any grunt work they needed, measure, carry, fetch, make tea . . . but I wasn't using any of the power tools. We were using MDF, foamboard, old election signs and of course a lot of GW pieces (several tanks and installations were harvested to bring us this Titan) so I was happy enough with snips, files and scalpels. By the last month I was working away on the Sander, Band Saw, Table Saw and a Rotary Power Tool that I remembered I had from the year before.

Once we had the basic structure built we started to fill out the body parts with plaster which had to be smoothed out once it dried. It was mainly used for the Legs and Head but some gaps in the Torso were also filled in. This is were the Rotary tool became a godsend. I worked on the Head to carve out the recesses for the eyes and cleaned up the jaw line nice. At this point we had the main work of the Model done all that was left to do we detail it to hell and back. Trolling through our Bitz box and a lot of findings we added more of the superficial (but awesome) details to make the Titan pop. Pipe and tubing were used to make pistons, Wheels were made into gears and then there were the guns! A lot of the guns were stock GW tank barrels but a lot of them were made from tubing and bits.

And finally after all of this work we still had to Paint it. Painting occured in three stages, Basecoats and General tones on the night before Gaelcon's setup day, Layering, Corrections and clean up during the setup day and then some more detailing and fine touch ups during the Gaelcon weekend.

We had advertised the Titan as an event at Gaelcon saying it would take on all comers but noone actually was brave enough to try. (We were certain it would still be standing at the End) It was also made known that the Finished Titan was to be included in the Gaelcon Charity Auction and that the Con Director was determined to win it. (Rookie mistake and you hate to see it done!) So a lot of people were bidding strictly to pump the price up and put him through the wringer. In the end he got it for €800. (That's over $1,100 american) And it now resides in his bed room, defending it from the forces of Chaos and probably scaring one or two of the girls he brings home.
So we can say we've built an Imperial Emporor Class Imperator Titan, what did you do with your summer? This year we're threatening to build a Chaos Imperator (Not the Con Director though . . . he has his own Titan which he loves very much but towards the end of the build there were times were he was sick of looking at it. So he said he was definitly out if we do.) and then at the next Gaelcon have to the Titans at opposite ends of the table blasting away at each other while the crowds eggs them on.

And why the hell not?!!