More Used Gaming Goodness

Gamestop is running their "Buy Two Used, Get One Free" promotion again, so I was able to get the following games for XBox 360 today: Grand Theft Auto IV, Prince Of Persia, and Left 4 Dead. Prince of Persia was the one marked for free.

My "From: Me, To: Me" Christmas Gift: The Motorola Droid

First off, I would like to wish everyone a very merry holiday! I got to spend the Christmas day with my two munchkins, and that's the best gift I could ever receive. The next best gift was (as Munchkin No.1 likes to call) my "From: Me, To: Me" gift for myself, a Motorola Droid!

Up to this point, I had been using a basic, no frills prepaid cell phone, and had no real reason in using anything fancier. But with recent changes and going-ons in my life, I've been using the cell phone more and more, where buying the prepaid minutes were becoming just as expensive as going through a subscription plan.

Last week, I started looking for any special deals or what was avaialable through Verizon (I was already going through them with my prepaid phone). Probably designed specifically for the holidays, Verizon had a deal going where if you purchased a Motorola Droid with a 2-year contract for an initial $199, you could receive another phone for free. Among the phones available for free happened to be a HTC Droid Eris, another smartphone! After doing some calculations, I found that I would be spending about $40 more a month for two smartphones than what I was currently spending on prepaid phone minutes for my basic phone. This was a deal I couldn't pass up, and Munchkin No. 1 was more than happy to receive the free smartphone!

So now me and the munckin are playing with our new gadget toys this holiday. I've only downloaded a couple of free apps so far, and I've been playing around customizing the screens and tones. I think I'll try the Twitter app next. This is fun. Happy Holidays!

Lost Is Too Damn Addicting!

I knew I wouldn't be able to keep to my viewing schedule of my Lost Rewatch. It's only been a couple of weeks since I started, and already I've finished rewatching the 3rd season finale! This show is just too good that if I continue watching at this pace, I'll be done with the 5th season before the end of the year, leaving me a month or so before the final season premiere...

To put my viewing schedule back on track, I've decided to stop watching Lost at the end of Season 3. What will I do until I can get my rewatch back on track? Play the video game, Lost: Via Domus, of course! The game is geared around the first three seasons, so starting the game now is perfect.

I found a used copy of Via Domus at Gamestop for only $12, so I'm gonna start playing now. Namaste!

A Replacement Found For My Dead Zune!

After about a week since the death of my Zune 120, I debated on what I would get as a replacement. Another Z120? A replacement hard drive to install myself? The Zune HD? Another brand of player altogether? Well, I can say that I made my decision and went and purchased a Zune HD, and I'm glad that I did!

This Zune HD is great! It sounds better, the form factor is nice, and the touchscreen is fun. I'll miss the storage capability of the Z120, so I only have my music, pics, and some podcasts installed at the moment, filling the player to about half of its 32 gigabyte capacity.

I am so happy to have on-the-go access to my tunes again!

Ack! My Zune Died!

After rewatching Lost's "Walkabout" last night (one of my favorite episodes!), I tried to start my Zune 120 to listen to some tunes before going to bed. Alas! As soon as I began to hear sounds coming from my player, I instantly knew things were not good. I eventually received an Error Code 5 and a message to contact support.

This morning I tried the various two-button and three-button resets for my Zune, but I knew it would be no use. I didn't need to contact customer support to know that the cause of death was the hard drive. I'm familiar with those whirring and clicking noises of the hard drive arm to know that it wouldn't be able to recover. My poor Zune has died.

My Zune had a good run, however. As you can see from my Zune card, I was able to get at least 35,000 plays out of it. In about a year's worth of time, I was able to fill it with about 45 gigs worth of music, podcasts, pics, and video. I always had my player with me. Keeping me company during the doldrums of cubicle life at work, keeping me focused while painting my minis, and soothing me to sleep at night. R.I.P. Zune 120...

What to do now? Go back to my older Zune 30? Nah, I had given my older Zune 30 to Munchkin No. 1 and I'd have to pry it from her cold dead fingers before I would be able to get that back. I'd like to get another Zune 120, but Microsoft has discontinued all of their other players since they released the Zune HD. Zune HD? Another brand altogether?

I can feel the withdrawals already... No access to my music.... Grrzztch... I need to get a player soon. Now. Damn, I miss my Z120.

Rewatching Lost

With the release of the DVD and Blu-Ray Season 5 of Lost, I will be ramping up my anticipation of the final season in February with a rewatch of the entire series. I've spaced out my viewing sessions to coincide with the season 6 premiere, but considering how addicting the series is, I don't think I'll be able to keep my schedule!

Happy Turkey Day! Gobble, Gobble...

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Turkey Day wherever you are! I won't have the munchkins with me until this weekend, so I'll be spending the holiday all by my lonesome. Sniff... sniff...

Well, boo frickin'hoo! Why should I crawl in a corner in my solitude? There's no point in feeling sorry for myself, so I had planned my holiday out.

First, after a tasty bowl of Cap'n Crunch, I'm heading out to go see Ninja Assassin. I heard it's got mindless action and gore, but gooood mindless action and gore. Shit, it's gots ninjas...

Yesterday, Gamestop started they're "Buy Two, Get One Free" used game sale, so after the flick, I'll be playing some games. Which games? Well, I'll be playing some Fable II, Fallout 3, and Beatles Rockband! Woohoo! Also, I downloaded Torchlight too, so I'll be dungeon delving as well.

What's for Thanksgiving dinner? Considering that it's just me, I won't have to go buy a bird. And I'm also vegetarian! I got some stuff from the grocery yesterday, so it'll pretty much be dinner like normal...

So that'll be how I'll be spending my Turkey Day! I hope you have fun on your holiday, and watch the tryptophan!

Woohoo! The Forums Are Back Up!

The Privateer Press message boards were down for the weekend (probably preparing for the release of the field test rules of Hordes Mk II), but they are now back online! It's pretty much empty at the moment, so I'm not sure if they're going to migrate the older posts. Message away!

Painting Lord Tyrant Hexeris

I like reading how people paint their minis, so I thought it might be fun to post on the blog my mini painting process. I am by no means a professional painter. Hell, I don't think I'm even a good painter. Just about average. So please don't take this as a painting guide, but just my journey through painting a mini!

After the black undercoat on Hexeris had dried, I began painting the figure, starting with the head. I used a basecoat of Bleached Bone, painting it over the entire head except around the eyes, openings of the nose, and the tiny area around his lips. It wasn't until after the basecoart was applied that I noticed that this guy has four fangs instead of two! I flipped through the Primal book, and yup, his picture shows him with four. It's funny since the pic of Hexeris on Privateer's site (which I printed to use as a reference) shows him with two. I also took this time to carefully put a little Codex Grey on the raised pupil of his scarred right eye.



Next, I brushed a wash of Ogryn Flesh over the head. I love the GW washes, because it saves me the time of having to paint the shadows in the recessed areas, which is much harder for me to do. I thought of using Devlan Mud for a greyish color to the shades, but I stuck with the Ogryn for the brown/red color, matching the picture from the Primal book.



After the wash had dried, I started painting the highlights to the raised and unshaded areas of the head. I just used Bleached Bone again, using very light drybrushing strokes instead of applying paint directly to the head. This way, some of the wash shows through the paint. For extremely raised areas such as the cheekbones, dome, chin, and eyebrows, I drybrushed it several times.

Next, I started detailing the head area. For the rings lining the top of the head, I used Chainmail. speaking of rings, I wasn't sure what was going on above Hexeris' left eye. I think it's a ring piercing over his eyebrow, so I painted it that way. This guy is bad-ass!

Now for the fangs. I was a bit undecided on a color for while. Using either a white or black color may not show up very well, considering his skin is a paleish white, and the mouth area is colored black. So I decided to go the middle route and painted the fangs Codex Grey.

Finally, the scar. Red/pink like the pic on Privateer's site? Brown like the pic in the Primal book? I chose the brown, but not like the book. Instead, I used Snakebite Leather, which has a slight yellowish tinge to the light brown. I think it turned out well, since the skin areas around the scar makes it look like a disgusting pus color.



Well, that's it for Hexeris' head area. It took me a total of about four hours to do, but hey, I'm a notoriously slow painter. I'm going to take break now, and cook up some pancakes and watch some low budget crap on the See Fee channel (Oh it's SyFy. Right....).

On A Mini Tear

In the past three months or so, my interest in wargming miniatures was rekindled after an eight year break. At first, it was back to painting my 6th Edition Warhammer Orcs. Then it was on to my Lord Of The Rings Fellowship starter Moria Goblins and Numenors. But after a few weeks of painting these older guys, I wanted to see what was new in the mini hobby.

After browsing through my FLGS, I came upon the Warmachine and Hordes line by Privateer Press. I believe I've seen these before, but I had always walked past them without even a glance. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at them in more detail. These figures are fantastically sculpted compared to GW's line of figures! I was instantly hooked, but knew nothing about them.

After doing a bit of research on the 'net, I discovered that Warmachine was in the process of a revision and Hordes would be undergoing one pretty soon. Even though many recommended waiting on purchasing the rulebooks (the new versions were already online or would be soon), I still wanted to get all of the books since the lore is really good and the artwork is excellent.

Anyways, after looking through the all the factions, it looks like I'll be starting armies for Skorne, Cryx, and Cygnar, with Skorne being the first. I bought a few warlocks, a warbeast, and a unit or two. I like the Skorne color scheme, but I think I'll be reversing the black and red color schemes. As a test, I painted a Paingiver in the modified colors:



I think the colors turned out alright, so I'll stick to this color scheme. My next painting subject will be my first Skorne warlork, Lord Tyrant Hexeris:



Up to this point, I've never had the need to use Greenstuff, but in Hexeris' case, the socket for his weapon-wielding arm was just too deep for the superglue to bond.



I think I've applied the greenstuff OK, and it seems to have stuck well. Now it's on to painting the guy.

Wow, it's been almost three years since my last post...