Tron Legacy
Bracing for Impact
I am on standby to set up new projects. I am available to you (yes you) for any question.
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The Pandora’s Army special is still running. There is still time to get on this round (expected to be completed near the end of August.
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Anyone who has a project that needs to be completed for an event, or by a deadline should contact me today in addition to your regular checkin. I want to make sure everything is lined up just right.
Email at bluetablepainting@gmail.com
Phone number is (801) 372-8545
Facebook ID is bluetablepainting http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=633040196
Google Chat ID is bluetablepainting (this is an extremely good way of getting a hold of me quickly)
Phone number is (801) 372-8545
Facebook ID is bluetablepainting http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=633040196
Google Chat ID is bluetablepainting (this is an extremely good way of getting a hold of me quickly)
Wading Pool
I was supposed to go into work today, a Friday.
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Starting bright and early in the morning, I practically cleared my inbox. All artists are on track and verified. I kept pushing back my time of departure until finally I decided to just hang out at home with the family. A slow and lazy day.
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I am over half-way through Star Trek TNG season 7.
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In the afternoon I headed to the pool with the three older kids to give my wife a much-needed break (sure, I left her with the baby, but the baby is very mild, more on that later). That was an adventure. We had pink-frosted sugar cookies for a snack. I followed the youngest around to be sure he didn’t get into more trouble than he could handle. It was extremely crowded, probably from being a Utah holiday. G and I waited for a long time to go down the water slide, but once it was our turn they turned him away for having life-jacket inserts in his suit. He took it very well. We were there for a few hours, measured in layers of sunscreen, before a distant sighting of lightning scared up a chorus of life-guard whistles and we had to evacuate. I convinced the kids of the wisdom of heading to a local burger joint to eat and play on the playground.
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My wife needed the time to cook dinner for a family where the mother has recently died of pneumonia. So, I kept the kids out of her hair for a few more hours. It was a young mother, younger than I by a few years, and a neighbor just down the block. My wife knew her, and was her friend and visiting teaching companion. She’s pretty shaken up. This morning (now Saturday) she headed off to the mortuary to do the make-up. After saying a short heartfelt prayer with her and another neighbor-lady I looked up to see both of them already broken up. As usual, my response will be delayed– stone-faced until everyone else is done. I think it took almost eight months when my own father died.
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My daughter, now ten years, had some straightforward questions: What happens when one parent dies? Does the other one get remarried? I gave her straight and short answers until she seemed satisfied and went off to play. These last few weeks she will sleep in whatever room I am in, curling up on floor, chair, couch or whatever like a faithful pup.
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On the way home from the pool, in the final leg of the journey as we made our way up a gently curving road to our home, I had a moment of bliss. Where the joy seems almost too much for the mortal frame. In front of me, the mountains loomed over a green cloud of trees. They looked to me like a Titan with long pale sandy fingers holding a moss-covered rock. To the right the storm front was moving in, making the entire mountain range disappear into pale greys and white, as if an artist had not finished the painting. In the rear-view I could see my sons, the youngest with sun-bleached hair, touseled and smiling, eyes sparkling with summery bliss as the shadows of the trees marched over him.
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A moment when the longing for heaven is overtaken by a realization that I am already in heaven. There is a shard of it inside of me. I feel it like a cell-phone feels the cell-phone-tower. I feel the Heavens yearning for me, opening my heart’s eye skyward.
Assault on Strongpoint 01
Death Korps vs Redjaw Orks
Five part battle report
Redjaw Orks: Assault on Strongpoint 01
2020 Pts – Orks Roster – Redjaw Clan Assault on Strongpoint 01
HQ: Big Mek (1#, 100 Pts)
1 Big Mek @ 100 Pts
Choppa; Kustom Force Field; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!; ‘Eavy Armour; Cybork Body; Mek’s Tools
HQ: Warboss (1#, 145 Pts)
1 Warboss @ 145 Pts
Power Klaw; Slugga; Twin-linked Dakkagun; Stikkbombs; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!; Attack Squig; Bosspole; Warbike
Elite: Burna Boyz (12#, 180 Pts)
10 Burna Boyz @ 180 Pts
Burna; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!
2 Mekboy @ [30] Pts
Kustom Mega-Blasta (x2); Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!; Mek’s Tools
Elite: Nobz (7#, 298 Pts)
6 Nobz @ 298 Pts
Big Choppa (x2); Choppa (x1); Power Klaw (x3); Slugga (x5); Shoota/Skorcha Kombi-weapon (x1); Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!; ‘Eavy Armour (x6); Ammo Runt (x1); Bosspole (x1)
1 Trukk @ [50] Pts
Big Shoota (x1); Armour Plates; Red Paint Job
Troops: Boyz (30#, 245 Pts)
29 Boyz @ 245 Pts
Choppa & Slugga; Rokkit Launcha (x3); Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!
1 Boyz Nob @ [41] Pts
Power Klaw; Slugga; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!
Troops: Boyz (30#, 245 Pts)
29 Boyz @ 245 Pts
Choppa & Slugga; Rokkit Launcha (x3); Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!
1 Boyz Nob @ [41] Pts
Power Klaw; Slugga; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Waaagh!
Fast Attack: Warbikers (5#, 165 Pts)
4 Warbikers @ 165 Pts
Choppa; Slugga; Twin-linked Dakkagun; Exhaust Cloud; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Warbike
1 Biker Nob @ [65] Pts
Power Klaw; Slugga; Twin-linked Dakkagun; Exhaust Cloud; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Bosspole; Warbike
Fast Attack: Warbikers (4#, 140 Pts)
3 Warbikers @ 140 Pts
Choppa; Slugga; Twin-linked Dakkagun; Exhaust Cloud; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Warbike
1 Biker Nob @ [65] Pts
Power Klaw; Slugga; Twin-linked Dakkagun; Exhaust Cloud; Furious Charge; Mob Rule; Bosspole; Warbike
Heavy Support: Battlewagon (1#, 150 Pts)
1 Battlewagon @ 150 Pts
Armour Plates; Boarding Plank; Deff Rolla; Grabbin’ Klaw; Grot Rigger; Stikkbomb Chukka; Wreckin’ Ball
Elite: Kommandos (16#, 265 Pts)
15 Kommandos @ 265 Pts
Choppa & Slugga; Burna (x2); Stikkbombs; Furious Charge; Infiltrate; Mob Rule; Move Through Cover; Waaagh!
1 Boss Snikrot @ [85] Pts
Mork’s Teeth; Stikkbombs; Furious Charge; Infiltrate; Mob Rule; Move Through Cover; Waaagh!
Heavy Support: Deff Dread (1#, 85 Pts)
1 Deff Dread @ 85 Pts
Dreadnought CCW (x2); Big Shoota (x1); Skorcha (x1)
Total Roster Cost: 2018
Created with Army Builder
Copyright (c) 1997-2006 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Elephant in the Room
Hey Shawn,
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Being a teacher with summer vacation gives me time to read blogs! I was triggered by seeing your sensible post about the F-22, but not seeing anything about why the government would have started something so foolish in the first place. You noted that the government may or may not be acting in the interest of citizens. But then ask whose interest it is acting in.
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I almost mentioned this a while ago when you made the Oligarchy post and talked about the elephant in the room and that you’ve studied some Latin American history. I don’t think those businesses approach US citizens with any more morality than they approach the people of Latin America. The elephant in the room to me seems to be corporations.
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Health insurance, banks, oil producers and refiners–these are not run by the government. Private corporations are in charge of all of those industries and have far more responsibility than the US government for crises within them (50 million people unable to see a doctor, the economic meltdown, an oil market divorced from supply and demand). I am not omitting the government, but I think the logic needs to go one step further. The failings within the government are that it serves those corporations more readily than it serves the interests of almost everyone else.
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Top lobbying industries according to www.opensecrets.org
1 Finance, Insurance & Real Estate $2,558,205,8822
Health $2,298,865,0533 Misc Business $2,257,719,5394
Communications/Electronics $2,092,700,7595
Energy & Natural Resources $1,670,116,4516
Transportation $1,358,911,1637 Other $1,252,273,8198
Ideological/Single-Issue $848,747,4269
Agribusiness $819,757,77110
Defense $668,009,65311
Labor $265,459,71412
Construction $264,698,10113
Lawyers & Lobbyists $188,142,079
Note: These amounts do not include campaign contributions.
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Look at how much the first two categories account for. Nearly 5 billion dollars. Have you heard about any problems in those industries lately?
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I see massive problems with our government. However, I think it is wise to ask why it operates as it does. How are decisions made? I think the above list gives a answer to that question … the people in the government have billions of dollars telling them to do what corporations want. What do corporations want? To make money–that is their legally-bound obligation. Spending billions of dollars must come with a payoff for them. If it didn’t, they would be breaking the law for wasting shareholder money. Unfortunately that influence makes a problem for everyone else. Corporations have no morals because they aren’t people–at least not at the level of large international companies. Corporations are legally bound to act in the interest of profit. There is no such binding to morality. Massively rich and powerful actors with no morals seem like an obvious source of problems.
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Although government is part of the problem because of this influence, I still see it as the only viable solution. The government should serve as the agent of the people to force moral sense and bigger goals than making money onto corporations. I am not saying get rid of business. I am not saying get rid of government. I am saying that the two of them in a back scratching-fest (I’m tempted to put it more obscenely) is what does us in. I think the solution is in severing that relationship.
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Regards,
M
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as a side note:”What would it look like if the federal government lived within its means? What would you see on the news? If a president or some members of congress took a stand on staying within budget, what do you think would be said of them?”A Rutger’s professor said, “By the end of the Clinton presidency, the numbers were uniformly impressive. Besides the record-high surpluses and the record-low poverty rates, the economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history; the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s; and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged.” Many others including a great many newsmen said, “He lied about cheating on his wife.”
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I have plenty of problems with Bill Clinton, but there is your balanced budget of fairly recent history.
Response to Equilibrium Post
Shawn,
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Quick response to one of your recent posts.
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1. I believe what was actually cut was funding for additional f22s, not the entire program. That was the quote from cnn and Robert Gates a few days ago anyway.
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2. If I may be so bold as to offer a dissenting opinion (said with a smile.)Defense projects like the f22 employ hundreds, often thousands of Americans in the private sector. Sure, there are government workers who contribute, no question. But the materials for the project and the construction of the craft are most often done by private companies. You should check out how most military contracts are gained, often competing private companies produce prototype products, and then are contracted for that item based on availability, performance, and political concerns.
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This obviously only deals with procurement, but the military is one of the few branches of government that draws heavily from private industry to fill its needs.The cost to the taxpayer and the relative need for new military inovation aside (a discussion that is worth a few hundred thousand words at least) the U.S. military structure funds lots of inovation and start up companies.
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P.S.I, personally have been converted to the cause of the conservative independent since this last election. Get the facts, ask questions, question statements involving dollars and numbers, what I’ve found is that nearly every number quoted today in politics to justify this program or that is an intentional distortion of reality, twisted to serve the speaker’s personal opinion. Now having done some research, I truly feel the 2 party system has failed the American people by condencing our political options down to a few limited moderates who only differ from one another on a few token issues used to distinguish themselves from the other party.
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–end soap box rant–
Dice Trove
Here’s a great source for dice:
My faves:
You can order any of these with your army, and at our standard discount (20% off; 30% off for military personnel). I can order these as part of any order.
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Matching dice are really the icing on the cake for an army.
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PS- I hope these pictures match up. Not totally sure.
Play Nice
New 40k Radio episode:
http://www.40kradio.com/archives/594