12.12.10
Posted in Miscellaneous, Steampunk
at 1:02 pm
I have always been a fan of the Victorian Era and the things associated with it. The last several Christmas seasons I have found myself surfing the internet and getting sucked into the wondrous world of Steampunk, or, as Wikipedia defines it, “[fiction] involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy.” The growth of the internet has allowed the creativity of this wacky community to be demonstrated in all of its zaniness.
Being the season it is, I had to suggest a list of the ten things any computer oriented fan of Steampunk would enjoy, whether they had to be laboriously made or purchased. So here’s ten of
Bonus:
I don’t know of any serious computer user who believes that less power is more. The same holds true for Steampunk fans and their gadgets, but just take a tour of Bruce & Melanie’s Steampunk Victorian House Tour (brought to you by Apartment Therapy Boston) if you want to see .
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11.23.10
Posted in Miscellaneous
at 9:11 am
stupid parrot
A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.
Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to ‘clean up’ the bird’s vocabulary.
Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even more rude. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.
Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arms and said “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”
John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude.
As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very softly, “May I ask what the turkey did?”
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11.10.10
Posted in Miscellaneous
at 8:19 am
M. Campbell conducted a non-scientific survey of the members of the Old School Wargaming mailing list recently. Here are his findings:
Well, the numbers are now officially crunched, and I can share the info with you, so without further ado…
QUESTION ONE: How old are you?
The average age of the respondent was 45 years old. The oldest respondant was 71 years old, and the youngest was 20. At 42, I’m a relative youngster 
QUESTION TWO: How long have you been involved in wargaming?
The average respondent has been involved in the hobby for a mind-blowing 34 years! This is mind blowing because according to hobby industry experts, the average persons ‘serious’ involvement in a hobby is only seven years….The longest respondent has been active for 54 years. The Shortest, only 5. At 15 years, again, I’m a relative lightweight
On a side note, I crunched a few additional numbers and found out that the average age that a person gets involved with wargaming as a hobby was 15 years old. This is entirely within range of the ‘golden age of 14′ theory in pop-culture analysis, which postulates that for each individual person the ‘golden age’ of anything is the way it was when they were 14 years old…
QUESTION 3: How did you initially hear about the Old-School Wargaming movement?
Someplace on the web: 29.5%
From someone in person: 6.8%
Email mailing list: 25%
Always been ‘OS’: 6.8%
The Miniatures Page (TMP): 13.63%
Old-fashioned dead-tree book/magazine: 9.09%
“I never really considered it a movement”:6.8%
Don’t Remember: 2.27%
Not a whole lot of surprises here, really…
4. Do you consider yourself ‘old school’ first and foremost, or is it part of your overall wargaming interest?
OSW first and foremost: 36.36%
Part of overall wargaming intrest: 56.81%
Declined to answer question: 4.54%
“I’m more Old Fart than Old School”: 2%
In all honesty, I expected the ‘first and foremost’ rating to be higher on this one, closer to the 50% mark than it is…
And last but nowhere near least:
5. What aspect of Old-School Wargaming appeals to you the most?
Social aspects/OSW folks are more fun to game with: 18.18%
Visual appeal/ like the miniatures : 20.45%
Rules are more fun/ more enjoyable: 38%
Nostalgia/Like the old-school writers: 13.63%
“Gentlemanly Charm”: 4%
Creative aspects: 9%
“Not really sure”: 2%
Interesting factoids.
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06.25.07
Posted in Miscellaneous
at 5:04 pm
I have been using Word Press for several months now and enjoy using it. There are, however, a couple of aspects I don’t like. The main hangup I have with it is that I can’t get a functional history of posts put together on the website. What I want is the ability to have posts sorted by topic within each category so that navigation is easier. The closest thing I have found so far is here — Category/Topic Sorting. I can’t seem to get this one integrated into a single page within WordPress, however. I currently have a plugin that will sort posts alphabetically and another that will show posts by month. Neither is satisfactory. Joomla, on the other hand, will allow me to do sublevels and categories. I have added this capability to a development version of my wife’s site. If you look at the new category on the main menu, it will take you to a subcategory into which I can file stuff after it is no longer a newsflash.
I can’t find much info on importing WordPress into Joomla, so that might be the biggest holdup, but I’d appreciate comments on this.
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02.19.07
Posted in Miscellaneous
at 12:21 pm
I recently was provided with a Confrontation miniature to paint for an auction supporting a tournament. It’s a limited edition figure made by Rackham as a giveaway for a convention. Don’t ask me what it’s supposed to be in game terms because I have no clue! Like all Rackham figures, this one has a lot of filigree, undercuts, and places that are just darned hard to paint! I used Reaper Masters Series paints on the model and I picked colors I have not used before as a challenge.
Originally I had in mind a scheme for the entire miniature that would look like the staff – dark colors fading up to light ones. Barf, was that a mistake! I tried again with a more limited pallette and used the ocean color triad. I think the results were much better.
The nice thing about fantasy miniatures is that there is no one correct way to paint them!
I left the staff the way it was, however, as the color shift was smooth and added character to the miniature. I painted the colors in first, then went back in and lined the filigree with brown and green liner so as to outline the gold filigree. The staff and hands came as a separate piece so I added them after I had painted the rest of the figure. I placed one end of the staff in a piece of blue-tac and painted and sealed the first part of it then just held on to the staff to finish painting it. The face was quite hard to paint as the details were tiny.
I washed the face with a black wash first, then used the Reaper light skin triad to highlight up to the lightest color. The right-most picture is not as good as I’d like it as there is a reflection that makes the horn look like the paint is not put on properly. Another new technique I tried here was shading metals in the same way as other colors. I outlined the ridges with brown liner mixed with a tad bit of black and then shaded from bronze to new gold (as the highlight). The figure was sealed with Reaper’s brush-on sealer.
Overall I am pleased with how it came out. We’ll see what the auction brings in!
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12.29.06
Posted in Miscellaneous
at 10:19 am
To base, or not to base — that is the question,
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outraged Old Schoolers
Or to break tradition to solve a sea of troubles and base for looks,
And by choosing, end the discussion. To decide, perhaps to magnetize,
And by magnetizing store them, on their sides
No more — and to magnetize, we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That miniature warriors are heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To paint, to continue,
To finish, to complete — perchance to rebase:
Ay, there’s the rub, for in the viewing of battles what thoughts may come,
What projects are left before we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. For there’s always a new one
That makes calamity of so short life
For who would bear the whips and scorns of significant others,
Th’ in-law’s laughter, the proud man’s scorn
The pangs of despised paint schemes, the opponent’s delays,
The insolence of rules writers, and the spurns
That historical gamers merit of th’ unworthy fictions,
When he himself might his own rules write while
Wearing an Old School Thong? Who would family bear,
That grunts and sweats as he modularizes terrain,
With the dread of something not to scale,
The undiscovered eras, from whose bourn
No gamer returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those systems we have
Than fly to others that we know not the rules of?
Thus conscience does make hoarders of us all,
And the hue of uniform colors
Is matted o’er with the pale cast of Dullcote,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With these miniatures allows plans to turn real
And share the realities of action. — Command you now,
Magnificient Soubise! — Graf von Grunt, in thy battles
Be all thy successes remembered.
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