Saturday March 8 2008 Eric and Elizabeth’s Wedding
Today was the wedding of my wife’s brother, Eric. In my wife’s family there are three sisters (I call them “the Furies”) and the little brother. So, at long last he is married.
That’s why I was completely incommunicado on Saturday. I apologize for not warning you. If you are waiting on a response from me, I plan on catching up on Monday (and Tuesday).
The wedding was simple an beautiful. My daugher, Kenna, was a flower girl. She was brilliant; all in white with that little basket of flower petals. Afterwards we had a dinner and a dance. I danced with all the ladies (the older ones, not the young, hot wives) and of course my own eternal bride. What I lack in skill I make up for in enthusiasm.
I gave a toast. That went better than I thought it would. It was an audience participation toast– the batman theme (ie na na na na na, batman!), except instead of “batman” it was “wed-DING!” I thought it would be completely retarded, but it went over well. Then the serious part.
After a night in a lodge bed (we stayed the night up at “The Homestead” in Midway) I felt like someone had hit me in the back with a 20 lb sledge. But there was an immense spread of unbelievable food in the main building. In all it was great experience and I got to meet a ton of new people.
Early Sunday morning we got news that Tamie’s grandma Ernie passed away (she had colon cancer). I didn’t think it would affect me, but I ran from the room sobbing and collapsed in the lodge kitchen. Well, that’s how it goes with me. I’m not very good at goodbyes. It hits me like a whallop then I’m done.
Note: no need to send condolences or anything. Just give someone you love a big hug, if you must do something.
As a side note: my mother-in-law is really great. Stereotypes aside she stays out of our business and is only extremely helpful when asked. She has three great skills: cooking, sewing and singing. And we say that each of the three daughters inherited one of those things. I got the “cooking” daughter (the eldest) so I think I got the better lot. You can’t eat a song! HAHAHAHAHA!
I even shot some clips. Here’s the first of them (I’ll be uploading more throughout the afternoon):
Sunday March 9 2008
I love it when a speaker at church gives a talk on something I’m good about. That is a rare occurrence. More often I see where I need drastic improvement.
Such is the case with this discourse by the late Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. I have read it many times. I present it to you as a jewel, something that has been of great value to me.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), young men are called to the priesthood at a young age (twelve, usually). Year after year we are taught that we are not called to command, but to serve.
Doctrine and Covenants 121:
41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile.
As usual, I find great need for improvement in my own life.
In other words, even if I have authority to dictate “how it’s going to be” I should still work by loving kindness and patience, and not by coercion. I think this is one of the great Tests. Even Heavenly Father, with all power and knowledge, with-holds himself from using coercion on us, letting us figure things out for ourselves, even when we are hurting ourselves or others.
I reach my words out to those that may read this. May your life be blessed. I encourage you with my whole heart. Keep your chin up!
More Bang for your Bug- March Special
[As of late in the evening, March 8, there is only ONE slot open for this]
This is a limited special, geared to the Tyranid player that has an unpainted army.
Tired of playing “Hive Fleet White Primer”?
I have two “whole army” slots open, one for the March 18-25 cycle (2008) and another for the March 25-31 cycle.
If you can get the models to us by March 17 or March 24, respectively, we can get them done right away. If you need assembly, the models would need to be in eight days earlier than those dates.
This does not need to be for just Tyranids! You can grab those spots for an army besides Bugs, BUT the special price is only for Tyranids. In a perfect world you would send an already assembled army for L2 painting, masses of them even. But any project is all right.
This is for Artistic License. We get to pick a reasonable color scheme. You can make requests, though.
Costs are as follows:
$2.00 for painting a L2 gribbly (gaunt, gargoyle, ripper swarm, spore mine, etc.)
$3.00 for painting a L3 gribbly
$8.00 for painting a L3 medium gribbly (tyrant guard, tyranid warrior, zoanthrope, etc.)
$32.00 for painting a L3 large gribbly (carnifex, hive tyrant)
We’ll only do the infantry stuff at L2 for this one.
Contact me at bluetablepainting@gmail.com if you are interested. Please send a complete list of what you have, what needs to be done EXACTLY, and when you can get the models/deposit in.
Two slots. First come first served.
Some Thoughtful Words
Hey Shawn,
I have been deeply amazed by your work ever since I showed up late to the party. (I sadly discovered you and BTP only a few months ago). Your spirit, drive, commitment and pure genuineness is an inspiration to anyone in the small business, hobby to job or gaming world; I happen to reside proudly within all three of those sub-categories. My name is Kyle and I have been gifted in life to have worked at an amazing specialty toy shop in Tucson, Arizona for the better part of 7 years now and I have great respect for your business.
I am writing you because I wanted to describe my resurrection back into tabletop gaming.
My father throughout my childhood immediately engaged my brother and I into the world of Dungeons and Dragons but he desperately wanted us to reach an age that he was comfortable letting us play miniatures with him. He was really into Chainmail and also had a tremendous GHQ spread for WWII play and as soon as we reached an age that he deemed appropriate we fell in love with gaming outside of the traditional RPG we were comfortable with. Over the next 10 years or so my father would lead my brother and I through adventure after adventure and we couldn’t wait for the next opportunity to game. We had a particular fondness for 40k because as we grew older we really got interested into the creation aspect of the miniatures. I really loved to paint and my brother loved to model terrain. Our coming home from school ritual all throughout high school was homework, paint, eat, play… pretty consistently. It was awesome.
Long story short, prior to my high school graduation my parents got a divorce and it rocked the foundations all our lives had been built on. My brother (already in college) coped by fading into the shadows and distancing himself from the divorce. My father quickly remarried and as a result bought large plastic storage containers and ‘retired’ all of the old gaming stuff… painful reminders of a bygone time. I regrettably did the same… until I discovered your work/blog/videos on Youtube.
Shawn, my love for gaming would crop up over the years as I would walk past an old Shadowrun book forgotten on my shelf sandwiched between textbooks or when I would drive by my local game shop and long for the lost days of my childhood, but after having found your little corner of the world I have since rediscovered my insatiable desire to play again. I have managed to round a couple of good friends up and we have started a little 40k group and cannot get enough of it. My Eldar have seen a great many battles in the last 2 months… and next week my father and I are going to meet up for a long overdue game.
Your passion is contagious and I cannot thank you enough for re-igniting my passion for this amazingly rewarding and deeply personal hobby/craft…
I figured as I sit here wrapping up homework for the evening that I would write you this… hope you don’t find it odd… I just wanted to say thanks and I look forward to your next batrep/video/blog. And if you ever make it out to Tucson…
Kyle
Tuesday February 4 2008
Picture: Chaos Knights of Tzeentch. They are for sale. Here are more pics. These are ancient– I’ve literally been trying to sell them for years. Yes literally since 2005. It’s a good set with some interesting conversion work.
The following projects are due to be completed in the next 5-10 days:
Ice Nids 01 JA
Hordes 05 JL
Falcons 02 MN
Heads 01 CH
War Machine 06 JL
Road Warrior Orc Trays (this has priority)
Ultramarines 05 TO
Tau 07 TO
Eldar 02 PM warp
Emperors Children 04 EB
Eldar 01 GS Harlequins (everything is in various stages, total completion by March 20)
High Elves 03 CA (delayed until now)
Daemonhunters 01 RK
Space Marines 01 EO
Lizardmen 01 JH
Vampire Counts 01 PB vorador
Tyranids 04 JC
War Machine 06 BF
It’s going to be a big week. Some projects are bound to be late.
The following projects are in digital photography– I couldn’t get around to them tonight (my wife is out gallavanting around with her sister and I’m home watching the kids).
- Fictional Reality 03 MT
- Tau 02 MN
- Vampires 02 DF
We’ve got a wedding coming up this week, and so the whole week’s schedule is revolving around that. Tamie’s brother Eric is finally getting hitched.
Today was a good day. I ordered another garbage pizza. Sweet.
Today I got in a TON of figures for my Dark Heresy game. I’m super stoked.
Also, got in some Wood Elf specialty hero models.
Monday March 3 2008
Picture: an Inquisitor for the Sisters of the Argent Shroud army.
At last it’s Monday! Thank goodness I can get back to work!
It was a typical day, getting projects ready for pickup tomorrow. I splurged and ordered a pizza (combo/garbage type). I got in a bunch of figures (like thirty) for the Dark Heresy game. I’m stoked about that.
For Family Home Evening we had the usual song/prayer/lesson then headed out to McDonalds Play Place for ice cream. The kids love that. So much for my diet. Heh.
Land of Lost Projects: the studio Orks have fallen by the wayside. They will probably get attention in April. Trollbloods are really on the back burner for the time being. All my effort is getting burned up by Dark Heresy.
Sorry, not much more to report.
Sunday March 2 2008
Picture: a melting icicle shot by Chris Harris.
http://www.chrisharris.com/newsletter/2005-june.html
Warning: Oh, listen to me! Don’t read on, there’s no game-related material in here!
While we were in Vernal I saw some huge icicles. They must have been about five feet long.
The weather is getting warmer and the snow is retreating. This morning I went for a walk around the neighborhood. The clouds were low and grey, covering the peaks of the near mountains.
I love Sundays. Whenever my wife asks me to do something I just say “Day of REST!” really loud. It doesn’t work, but it’s fun to say.
During church, Griffin was having a hard time in nursery. It’s directly during his nap time. I’m really considering just taking him home during that time. Yeah, that has to happen.
This winter I decided not to shovel my driveway. Soon, it was a huge slab of ice, eight inches thick. It was unmanageable. Oh, how I wish I had just shoveled the snow as I went along.
How like that is to holding grudges, or letting bad habits go on year after year. Struggling to keep my life clear of these things (forgiving and repenting often) keeps these things from hardening into an impenetrable sheet of ice on my soul. And even if I’ve let things get bad I need to start picking away at it, day after day.
Help is often closer than I think. Heavenly Father is much kinder than I am to myself and I’ve always found His good grace; like a warm day that makes the ice melt away completely, and I can’t even remember it was there.
I am definitely not a very virtuous person. I have so very far to go.
One of my favorite discourses. It’s long, but there are some gemstones in there.
After church I went to do some Elders Quorum stuff, but not before making up some rice krispie treats. I like to make up a batch in a bowl and eat them with a fork while they are still warm, with a glass of ice cold milk. That’s the good stuff.
PS- Here I make my usual disclaimer: I am not a very good person. I struggle with what I suppose to be the regular weaknesses of mankind. I make no pretense. I’m just a guy who is trying to get better year after year.
Friday and Saturday March 1 2008
Picture: flashback to the “Tundra Nids”. This happy fellow is a Carnifex.
See more pics here.
Download the cost sheet for Tyranids here.
A studio Tau army is going on the block soon.
Friday
Every day I go into the studio I think it’s going to be a breeze and it’s more like a hurricane. So much to get done.
Well, it was almost wrapped up by 4pm when we started our Dark Heresy game. We decided to just do a low-key session and look up every last rule as we went along in order to familiarize ourselves with the game.
After that I went to help Brenda move (the sister of one of my Home Teaching families).
Saturday
This morning we headed out to Vernal for the baptism of one of my nephews. That was simple and beautiful. We spent the afternoon at the house of Tamie’s sister. They have a really nice place out there. Vernal is high, rolling desert, like out of a Western (in fact, many movies from the genre were shot out in Utah).
More details: I am a real bear on the road. I gripe about my wife’s driving, bark at the kids, and generally gripe and groan about every little thing. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I set my will to keep cool, it always melts down. My wife is the driver in the family. She has some kind of iron will that keeps her going.
Griffin loves transformers. He pretends to be any number of them. He wants me to “fly” him around. He gets an enormous grin on his face the whole time.
It was snowing on the pass on our way home and that was pretty scary. We finally got home around 1am.