Toy Soldier Clean Up

I took a little bit of time to actually attack my long neglected work area today after work. I set to work cleaning out the piles of stuff that I have accumulated over the last year or so. Finally, I got so disgusted, I just started throwing out boxes of models that haven't seen a paint brush or the light of day since Christmas of 2010. I think a part of that overwhelming feeling of drowning in plastic is that I have a too much plastic...and metal. There were stacks of have used kits and sprues and boxes all over the place. Well I figure it's time to divest myself of the things that I realistically was never going to work on. I had put many of the metal models up for sale on ebay some time ago, with no takers and nobody I gamed with was interested in metal models anymore, so in the trash it went.

In the end, I thinks it's a good decision because now it allows me to focus on the one or two projects that I'm interested in at the moment. Was it a huge waste of money? You betcha, but I can feel myself returning from the bring of insanity. Man, I love spring time.

Am I Really That Old????

I was slapped by a healthy dose of real life this morning, that I want to share. I got out of bed at 6:00am on this beautiful winter morning to wake up my oldest daughter. You see, today she is taking her high school entrance exam. Yes, she is in 8th grade and beginning to prepare herself for high school. Those exciting but scary first steps into adulthood. I can't believe how fast the time is flying. It's seems like yesterday I was lounging on the sofa with my newborn baby girl sleeping on my chest.

Anyway, we stopped at a Starbuck's so she can get one of those fancy, schmancy caffeinated drinks (they like to call it coffee, but it's not). We went in and she ordered her mocha, latte, whateveryoucallit and then we moved to the next station where we waited for her order. Then I hear the barista ('cause now they have to have a special tile), yell out "Grande Soy Chai"!! I looked at my teenager and said "What the hell is a Soy Chai". She shrugged her shoulders and I launched into a grumpy-old-man style tirade about kids today. I pointed out that her 'coffee' cost $6 bucks and there wasn't even a newspaper or coffee pot in the whole place. I couldn't help but notice that I was the oldest person in there and everyone had their heads buried in a their laptops or their iPhones. Thoroughly embarrased, my daughter pulled her hood over her head, grabbed her drink and headed for the door.

I just got back from dropping her off and realized that I am the father of a modern teenager and a girl, no less. How's that for a double whammy? I guess my point here is, that I really feel old. I always thought that I was the cool dad and in the loop. I guess not. But finally, I just want my daughter to know that I'm so very proud of her and all that she's achieved and I believe that she will, without a doubt take the world by storm.

Lost!

I'm currently in a serious gaming/hobby funk. I've been drifting back and forth between reading WFB rules/expansions, to Warmachine, to Pathfinder RPG and their new upcoming Heroes and Monsters miniature combat game, to board games like The Adventurers and Heroscape. Then bouncing back to 40k. I even glance at the Dreadfleet boxed set which I have not finished reading. I've seen some great material on the web or in magazines, but I can't seem to get myself motivated enough to jump into anything.

I just don't know what to do anymore. Maybe it's because I'm too busy with work and family, but I can't seem to engage any project or game with any kind of zeal. Has anyone out there been faced with a similar dilemma?

It's Christmas Time Alright!

The holidays are definitely here. It took me an hour and a half to get the Christmas stuff down from the garage and another thirty minutest to get stuff into the house. That's because my darling bride of 15 years decided to go grocery shopping first and then to her mother's house. So by the time she got home, it was after three o'clock. After 45 minutes of sifting through boxes and testing lights and whatnot, we got one lighted lawn ornament done. Now that my hands are numb and my nose is running...AND it is now dark outside, I shoved everything back into the garage and called it a day.

Moral of the story: Don't start your Christmas decorations after half the day is gone on a Sunday.

Should I or Shouldn't I??

So Games Workshop has announced it's new board game, Dreadfleet. Ship combat in the World of Warhammer on the high seas. One thing GW does well (in my opinion) is generate hype. That is until they decided to start keeping a lid on things. But at first glance, this new game certainly does reel me in, and my first instinct is to buy the game. But once again, they take the wind out of my sails by A) Making it 'Whiles Supplies Last', so now I can't plan to get the scratch together over the course of a couple of paydays to buy it, and B) Set the retail price so high, that a working dad of three can't help but become overwhelmed with guilt for spending more than $100 on a board game.

Again, the game looks great and I am a huge fan of their revival of Space Hulk, but will they make the game worth the investment? By that I mean will we see expansions in the future, i.e. a reason to keep playing the game after the initial excitement has fizzled?? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess 'no'. That was the one big disappointment that I had with Space Hulk. No new scenario packs, no new model kits or expansions. I've played the game a bunch of times, but now it becomes the same thing over and over. Hardly worth the $100 price tag.

I'm not sure who's steering the ship over there, but they need to take a long, hard look at their business model, before they lose that loyal customer base.

So GW's shipping process sucks....

As I may have mentioned, I pre-ordered the new BA codex. I did that for a few reasons. First, I'm a space marine junkie in all of their forms so I'll collect the codex. Second, I was really looking forward to having this book seeing as how the BA haven't gotten enough attention in quite some time (I thought the WD Codex was about as lame as you can get). Finally, I thought that I'd get it a day early (worse case scenario). Well it's late Friday night and I never received the codex which I ordered on March 8th. So I've got two options: a) wake my ass up and drive over the nearest GW store in the morning and buy a copy and send the other one back when it gets here or b) wait until the one I ordered arrives. If I go with option b - I've gotten a boring weekend in store and I don't think I can handle an Easter at my in-laws without some form of distraction...so, it looks like I better set the alarm.

Tonight's the premiere of Stargate Universe, so I'll check that out and hit the sack. Man, I'm pissed. Stupid GW.

Wednesday Rant

Gamers all over the internet are posting pics and reviews of their newly arrived Space Hulk games. So I popped into my local GW store where my game was to be delivered and checked with the staff. They did acknowledge that they received a substantial number of copies of the game, but will not be putting them out until Saturday. Of course, when I requested that I get mine now, it was explained to me that I couldn't have it until the store received the invoices. Some paperwork screw of some sort.

So despite the fact that I paid for my copy in advance and had it shipped to the store, I am being penalized. At the risk of sounding like a spoiled brat, why can't I have mine, just like everybody else? GW took my money quick enough.