Real talk time-
I'm practically done with my book.
But
I refuse to work on it.
It's finished. It is a grand total of about five pages from being done, I know what needs to be on those pages, but I don't finish the book. The reason I don't finish it, is that if I don't have a finished book, I don't have to work on marketing it. I don't have to try to sell myself. If I don't have a finished book, I don't have to put myself out there. If I don't have a finished book, no one can tell me no. With a finished book that all changes, so I don't finish my book.
I know I should be working on it. I know that I should be doing something with my time rather than just staring at my comptuer doing absolutely nothing, but I don't want to. I'm throwing a fit that Addie would be proud of and I just don't want to.
Speaking of her - I'm going to go check on her and make sure that she's asleep. She's been sleeping through the night for years now, but I'm still going to do it because it's something to do rather than finishing up my book.
Feb 25, 2016
Feb 24, 2016
Avoiding Writing
https://soundcloud.com/kutski/learning-to-count-with-hardstyle
I am so finished after stumbling into this one. A DJ started to figure out all of the songs he had that he could mix together with the counting that always happens in the songs. It's genius, horrible and awesome at the same time.
For those wondering - thanks to the comments of the song - here's everything that he uses.
Tracklist:
1) Zany & Ruthless - Free For All
2) Crisis Era - Loud
3) Dimitri Vegas, Martin Garrix & Like Mike - Tremor (NY TNZ remix)
4) Flux Pavillion - One Two Three (Playboyz and Carbine Bootleg)
5) Brennan Heart vs Noisecontrollers - Just As Easy Again
6) E-Force - Seven
7) Kutski & Bioweapon - One
8) Dr Phunk - Blasterjaxx Megamix
(I can't easily find a video of this one)
9) Coone - Aladin on E
10) Sourcecode - I'm not a Number
11) Al Twisted & Necrotic - 4&3&2&1
Again, one that I can't find yet.
This is what I'm rocking out to right now instead of editing chapter two like I should be doing.
I am so finished after stumbling into this one. A DJ started to figure out all of the songs he had that he could mix together with the counting that always happens in the songs. It's genius, horrible and awesome at the same time.
For those wondering - thanks to the comments of the song - here's everything that he uses.
Tracklist:
1) Zany & Ruthless - Free For All
2) Crisis Era - Loud
3) Dimitri Vegas, Martin Garrix & Like Mike - Tremor (NY TNZ remix)
4) Flux Pavillion - One Two Three (Playboyz and Carbine Bootleg)
5) Brennan Heart vs Noisecontrollers - Just As Easy Again
6) E-Force - Seven
7) Kutski & Bioweapon - One
8) Dr Phunk - Blasterjaxx Megamix
(I can't easily find a video of this one)
9) Coone - Aladin on E
10) Sourcecode - I'm not a Number
11) Al Twisted & Necrotic - 4&3&2&1
Again, one that I can't find yet.
This is what I'm rocking out to right now instead of editing chapter two like I should be doing.
Feb 23, 2016
Part Time Job
I am a professor at two universities.
I have a master's degree.
This summer I'm most likely going to have to get a part time job at a dead end job because the universities that want to hire me during fall do not have the student inflow to keep me during summer.
If you know any place that is hiring a professor of English (or just a person with a pulse) on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and some Saturdays) during the summer, let me know. I'd like to be able to survive the summer. My only one that I will flat out refuse is anything that is even slightly reminiscent of a call center.
I have a master's degree.
This summer I'm most likely going to have to get a part time job at a dead end job because the universities that want to hire me during fall do not have the student inflow to keep me during summer.
Feb 22, 2016
Do You Know What You Should Write Next?
"You know what you should write next? How about you . . ."
No.
How about you write that book?
Did you ever consider that I'm not writing that book because I don't want to? That I hate that genre? That it's not my style? That it's just not what I do?
Just because I'm an (aspiring) author, does not mean that I'm a freelance author. You can't just tell me a story that you think is great or a duplicate of something that someone else has written, and then expect me to run with it for as far as possible and publish a multi-million dollar deal. If that is what you want me to do, please hire me and start paying me money, because if I know that I'll get my money up front, instead of having to deal with the stupidity of the publishing world, I'll take that action.
I understand it's coming from a good place. You're just trying to help me out, but let's get this straight right now. I don't need your help coming up with story ideas. If I need help on what to write next, I'll ask. If I don't know what to do with my life, I'll come to you and say something. When someone that doesn't know me, or that I don't care about, tries to pull this on me I get really snarky really fast and have some cutting comments back to them. If you're related to me, I'll smile and say thank you as I quietly plot ways of giving you advice on how to do things that you're specialized in. I'm sure you'd love some advice about how you can be a better accountant, or start dealing with accounts payable if you've done nothing but accounts receivable for your entire career because it's from a creative writer, no?
Until I come to you and ask you for help on a story, shut up.
If you think that it's that great of a story, you write it. I give you full permission to write it. Sit down and crank out three drafts of it. I'll enjoy the view as you struggle to get past the first ten pages because you realize that you have no clue what you're doing and don't know how to do anything beyond telling other people what to do with their lives.
Seriously, never, ever, ever tell me what you think I should write. I have enough in back log to last me a few decades. If I ever run out of something to write about, assume I'm dead.
Until I stop writing, don't give me advice. I know you really want me to be successful, but I want to write something that I'm proud of, that I'm thinking of, that I actually want to do. It's part of the perks of the job, I get to write what/how/when/where I want. I'm not going to just drop everything that I'm working on and start writing your rough story idea that doesn't have much more than a genre that I have zero experience or desire in.
No.
How about you write that book?
Did you ever consider that I'm not writing that book because I don't want to? That I hate that genre? That it's not my style? That it's just not what I do?
Just because I'm an (aspiring) author, does not mean that I'm a freelance author. You can't just tell me a story that you think is great or a duplicate of something that someone else has written, and then expect me to run with it for as far as possible and publish a multi-million dollar deal. If that is what you want me to do, please hire me and start paying me money, because if I know that I'll get my money up front, instead of having to deal with the stupidity of the publishing world, I'll take that action.
I understand it's coming from a good place. You're just trying to help me out, but let's get this straight right now. I don't need your help coming up with story ideas. If I need help on what to write next, I'll ask. If I don't know what to do with my life, I'll come to you and say something. When someone that doesn't know me, or that I don't care about, tries to pull this on me I get really snarky really fast and have some cutting comments back to them. If you're related to me, I'll smile and say thank you as I quietly plot ways of giving you advice on how to do things that you're specialized in. I'm sure you'd love some advice about how you can be a better accountant, or start dealing with accounts payable if you've done nothing but accounts receivable for your entire career because it's from a creative writer, no?
Until I come to you and ask you for help on a story, shut up.
If you think that it's that great of a story, you write it. I give you full permission to write it. Sit down and crank out three drafts of it. I'll enjoy the view as you struggle to get past the first ten pages because you realize that you have no clue what you're doing and don't know how to do anything beyond telling other people what to do with their lives.
Seriously, never, ever, ever tell me what you think I should write. I have enough in back log to last me a few decades. If I ever run out of something to write about, assume I'm dead.
Feb 16, 2016
It Must Be My Fault - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/126/do-gooders
This one is a good one for me right now because apparently it's my fault when I'm trying to do a good job at LDSBC.
Recently I've been trying to fight the fact that my turn over rate for first semester English students is ridiculously high. I start semesters with 20+ students in each class, and then all of the sudden by the end of the semester I'm down almost 50%. This semester I didn't want to do it. This semester I wanted to try to retain as many students as possible. I wasn't going to just sit back and do nothing, so I did what the college wanted me to do, I reported every single student that was struggling, and that meant that I reported half of my class.
That's right, I put half of my class into the list of students that needed help to pass my course.
Instead of thinking that possibly it was my students who were struggling, that it could possibly be the issue with my students not having the skills or knowledge required for being part of a university system, the first thing that got said was that it has to be my problem. It wasn't the fact that the majority of my students struggled to graduate from college, are first generation college students, or even the fact that most of them don't even show up to class - no - the real problem was with me, the teacher, the one who was trying to improve their lives and willing to point a light on those that were struggling with the simpliest of tasks of showing up to class, taking notes, and paying attention enough to stay awake.
It only gets worse.
As I was looking through the course when I first started teaching there I was thankful for everything that was given to me, because I didn't have anything. I was thankful for the fact that they had a course ready for me to teach, and that it was put together in a way that I just had to show up and teach and didn't have to rely too much on my non-existant lesson making skills. It was a great thing.
Now that I'm about a year into the teaching thing, I'm starting to notice a major bug in the system. It's impossible for a student to fail the course if they show up and turn things in. Even if it is horribly written, even if there is a quality to their writing that is down right unprofessional and has no right to pass an ENG 101 course, it's impossible for them to fail as long as they turn in every single assignment.
Let's break it down so you can understand.
There's five major assignments.
Personal application of a self help book.
Rhetorical analysis of a self help book.
Synthesis and analysis of a topic given from the university.
Group profile piece of a company.
Personal philosophy.
Each of those is worth 100 points for a total of 500 points.
What isn't told is that attached to many of those are 'checkpoints' and 'journals' that add unnecessary fluff to the course to make it impossible to loose.
In my opinion the synthesis and analysis research paper is the most important and technical out of the entire series. Unfortunately, it's weighted the same as a personal philosophy paper (we'll get to that later), and then the fluff that surrounds it is the exact same weight as the final paper. That's right, it's 100 points, and all of the fluff (including a 30 point assignment that is basically show and tell for college students) is also worth 50 points. That means that even if one of my students manages to absolutely fail that paper and get a 50% on it, if they do all of their fluff assignments, it totals out to be a C, and that is for the most important paper in the course.
The group profile piece is a joke and as long as students work together in the two weeks they have to write it, they'll pass that assignment with an A.
The 'final' for the course is a personal philosophy, but it's 100 points worth of fluff. The writing prompt for the personal philosophy is junk. All it says is explain why you think the way you think. It can be about anything, just explain why you think the way that you think. It could be about how Care Bears are a life influence for you and that your life is strictly influenced by the power and strength that Care Bears and the Care Bear stare gives to you, and you would get full credit. The technical merit of that paper is non-existent, and it essentially comes out to another free 100 points as long as it's turned in.
As long as students show up and turn things in, they can't get anything lower than a C. It's impossible. It doesn't matter if they know the skills required of them, what matters is passing them through the system.
The reason I'm talking about all of this is that I would try to change it, however I know that for this one case, it's impossible. The university isn't focused on teaching skills that are actually used and can be transferred to the real world, they're more focused on helping people believe in Christ. I know that this isn't a bad thing, but it gets in the way of an education. I could try to explain to people why I think that we're doing a disservice to our students by freely allowing them to pass courses even though they have no education and skills that we are promising them, but I'd be instantly put under the spotlight. Instead of looking at the course material or the university, I'd be the one in trouble. It can't be a problem with LDSBC, it has to be a problem with me. The reason my students aren't learning the skills required isn't because of the lack of rigor or the complete lack of credibility from a university, but because I must be teaching their approved lesson incorrectly.
This one is a good one for me right now because apparently it's my fault when I'm trying to do a good job at LDSBC.
Recently I've been trying to fight the fact that my turn over rate for first semester English students is ridiculously high. I start semesters with 20+ students in each class, and then all of the sudden by the end of the semester I'm down almost 50%. This semester I didn't want to do it. This semester I wanted to try to retain as many students as possible. I wasn't going to just sit back and do nothing, so I did what the college wanted me to do, I reported every single student that was struggling, and that meant that I reported half of my class.
That's right, I put half of my class into the list of students that needed help to pass my course.
Instead of thinking that possibly it was my students who were struggling, that it could possibly be the issue with my students not having the skills or knowledge required for being part of a university system, the first thing that got said was that it has to be my problem. It wasn't the fact that the majority of my students struggled to graduate from college, are first generation college students, or even the fact that most of them don't even show up to class - no - the real problem was with me, the teacher, the one who was trying to improve their lives and willing to point a light on those that were struggling with the simpliest of tasks of showing up to class, taking notes, and paying attention enough to stay awake.
It only gets worse.
As I was looking through the course when I first started teaching there I was thankful for everything that was given to me, because I didn't have anything. I was thankful for the fact that they had a course ready for me to teach, and that it was put together in a way that I just had to show up and teach and didn't have to rely too much on my non-existant lesson making skills. It was a great thing.
Now that I'm about a year into the teaching thing, I'm starting to notice a major bug in the system. It's impossible for a student to fail the course if they show up and turn things in. Even if it is horribly written, even if there is a quality to their writing that is down right unprofessional and has no right to pass an ENG 101 course, it's impossible for them to fail as long as they turn in every single assignment.
Let's break it down so you can understand.
There's five major assignments.
Personal application of a self help book.
Rhetorical analysis of a self help book.
Synthesis and analysis of a topic given from the university.
Group profile piece of a company.
Personal philosophy.
Each of those is worth 100 points for a total of 500 points.
What isn't told is that attached to many of those are 'checkpoints' and 'journals' that add unnecessary fluff to the course to make it impossible to loose.
In my opinion the synthesis and analysis research paper is the most important and technical out of the entire series. Unfortunately, it's weighted the same as a personal philosophy paper (we'll get to that later), and then the fluff that surrounds it is the exact same weight as the final paper. That's right, it's 100 points, and all of the fluff (including a 30 point assignment that is basically show and tell for college students) is also worth 50 points. That means that even if one of my students manages to absolutely fail that paper and get a 50% on it, if they do all of their fluff assignments, it totals out to be a C, and that is for the most important paper in the course.
The group profile piece is a joke and as long as students work together in the two weeks they have to write it, they'll pass that assignment with an A.
The 'final' for the course is a personal philosophy, but it's 100 points worth of fluff. The writing prompt for the personal philosophy is junk. All it says is explain why you think the way you think. It can be about anything, just explain why you think the way that you think. It could be about how Care Bears are a life influence for you and that your life is strictly influenced by the power and strength that Care Bears and the Care Bear stare gives to you, and you would get full credit. The technical merit of that paper is non-existent, and it essentially comes out to another free 100 points as long as it's turned in.
As long as students show up and turn things in, they can't get anything lower than a C. It's impossible. It doesn't matter if they know the skills required of them, what matters is passing them through the system.
The reason I'm talking about all of this is that I would try to change it, however I know that for this one case, it's impossible. The university isn't focused on teaching skills that are actually used and can be transferred to the real world, they're more focused on helping people believe in Christ. I know that this isn't a bad thing, but it gets in the way of an education. I could try to explain to people why I think that we're doing a disservice to our students by freely allowing them to pass courses even though they have no education and skills that we are promising them, but I'd be instantly put under the spotlight. Instead of looking at the course material or the university, I'd be the one in trouble. It can't be a problem with LDSBC, it has to be a problem with me. The reason my students aren't learning the skills required isn't because of the lack of rigor or the complete lack of credibility from a university, but because I must be teaching their approved lesson incorrectly.
I want the 90's back
My playlist is everything on my computer on a loop. I stumbled into this one, remembered it was a good song, and then decided to share it with you. Things went better than expected and it has a music video. The best part about this thing is that this music video is so 90's it hurts. It's so amazingly 90's that I want the 90's to come back just so this could be our music video world again.
I can't even begin to understand this but it's so awesome that you just want to keep watching.
Feb 14, 2016
It's The End of The World - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/125/apocalypse
It's the end of the world as I've known it, and I've known that for a long time.
It's one of the weirder parts of being Mormon, but the church firmly believes that we are living in the latter days (the last days). I mean, it's in the title of our church, that we think that we are the last generation of true believers here on Earth, until the apocalypse happens. To those inside the church, it's totally normal, and almost accepted to talk about when Christ comes, and how we'll be when it happens. It's nothing weird at all to hear people talk about their emergency preparedness kits because when Christ comes things are going to get hectic, and they're going to need supplies to survive.
It's to the point where it's fairly frequent that there is an individual in the ward, who has a job that is to get everyone in the ward prepared for an 'emergency' (read: apocalypse). We're the proud owners of gallons and gallons of powdered foods sitting in our pantries and under our beds. We're the weirdos that have large plastic containers in our garages so we can have clean pure water when the water supply goes bad.
The thing that I've never realized is just how weird it is to have an active belief that the world is going to end, and I have a decent chance to see it. No one knows the date or time it's going to happen, so it could happen next week, or it could happen 1,000 years from now, the only thing that I believe (thanks to my religion) is that my church is going to be here on the Earth when it does happen, and we're not going to leave until it happens.
The funniest thing growing up with an emergency prepardness kit and a food storage that included things like 20 pounds of barley, was when things started to get old. Each year during summer we would pull out our kits and try to eat lunch off of what was in them.
It was never good.
Then came the awkward times when my mom would buy something for our food storage. For the most part they were good ideas. Getting a giant 5 gallon plastic bucket of rice - great idea, we loved rice and ate it all the time. Getting a 5 gallon bucket of pinto beans - not the best idea because who uses dried beans that often? This lead to things sitting in storage for a long time, and then one day my mom noticing that things were getting close to their experation date, so we'd start to try to use that food in our meals.
There's a reason that no one eats barley any more.
The same goes for an excessive amount of dried beans. They're good for a small bit, but a small bit goes a long way. Seriously, you can buy a gallon tin can of beans and use them for about a year and not run out, and that's assuming that you're semi-active in trying to use them. Those things go a LONG way, and we were stuck with massive amounts of them just sitting there in our pantry waiting for us to use . . . or for the apocalypse to happen.
It's the end of the world as I've known it, and I've known that for a long time.
It's one of the weirder parts of being Mormon, but the church firmly believes that we are living in the latter days (the last days). I mean, it's in the title of our church, that we think that we are the last generation of true believers here on Earth, until the apocalypse happens. To those inside the church, it's totally normal, and almost accepted to talk about when Christ comes, and how we'll be when it happens. It's nothing weird at all to hear people talk about their emergency preparedness kits because when Christ comes things are going to get hectic, and they're going to need supplies to survive.
It's to the point where it's fairly frequent that there is an individual in the ward, who has a job that is to get everyone in the ward prepared for an 'emergency' (read: apocalypse). We're the proud owners of gallons and gallons of powdered foods sitting in our pantries and under our beds. We're the weirdos that have large plastic containers in our garages so we can have clean pure water when the water supply goes bad.
The thing that I've never realized is just how weird it is to have an active belief that the world is going to end, and I have a decent chance to see it. No one knows the date or time it's going to happen, so it could happen next week, or it could happen 1,000 years from now, the only thing that I believe (thanks to my religion) is that my church is going to be here on the Earth when it does happen, and we're not going to leave until it happens.
The funniest thing growing up with an emergency prepardness kit and a food storage that included things like 20 pounds of barley, was when things started to get old. Each year during summer we would pull out our kits and try to eat lunch off of what was in them.
It was never good.
Then came the awkward times when my mom would buy something for our food storage. For the most part they were good ideas. Getting a giant 5 gallon plastic bucket of rice - great idea, we loved rice and ate it all the time. Getting a 5 gallon bucket of pinto beans - not the best idea because who uses dried beans that often? This lead to things sitting in storage for a long time, and then one day my mom noticing that things were getting close to their experation date, so we'd start to try to use that food in our meals.
There's a reason that no one eats barley any more.
The same goes for an excessive amount of dried beans. They're good for a small bit, but a small bit goes a long way. Seriously, you can buy a gallon tin can of beans and use them for about a year and not run out, and that's assuming that you're semi-active in trying to use them. Those things go a LONG way, and we were stuck with massive amounts of them just sitting there in our pantry waiting for us to use . . . or for the apocalypse to happen.
Feb 11, 2016
Welcome To America - My American Life
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/124/welcome-to-america
I don't have any experience with becoming an American citizen because I got that whole thing called born and raised in the states and am a natural born citizen going for me.
Most of the time I try to avoid talking too much about politics. I don't do it at work, I don't do it at home, and I don't do it much of anything because it's just not that often that I get the chance to say it, but it's my blog so I can put this one out there.
There should be no way shape or form that Trump on his current rhetoric should ever be elected president.
The problem that I have with him is that e bases everything off of hatred. Everything he does is based off of fear and hatred for the unknown, and his logic when he fights against those that don't agree with him is as simple as you're either supporting him or he insults you. The worst thing he does is insult immigrants.
I can not stand how he thinks that immigrants that are in the states legally, that are citizens of the country, are the issue. How is it possible that a person that is representing the people of a country that is founded on fleeing oppression and bad politics, is now supporting to throw out and blame those that are running away from oppressive governments and looking for a new opportunity?
What's even more impressive to me is just how many people are backing him even though he's racist, sexists, and quite a bigot.
The really sad part about those words is that they're so overused when slinging mud that no one really quite understands what the actual deffinition of those words are any more. Those words have lost credibility in the impact of what they say, but the sad part about it all, is that he fits the core definitions. They're not inflamatory or hyperbolic in any way shape or form. He is sexists, he insults women, he looks down on them, and treats them as second class citizens. He is racist, because anyone who isn't a white natural born citizen of the United States must be a terrorist that issecretly trying to destroy our economy, a rapist, or a murderer. Most of all he's a bigot. He's unwilling to listen to any other side of an argument. He is under the very strict idea that it is his way or no way.
I really don't know what I'm going to do if he gets voted in for a presidency. I'm really afraid what stupid war he's going to get us in because of his large mouth and 'shoot from the hip' type attitude that is only going to get us in trouble. He's inssulting everyone in the country that he's running for a presidency in, I can't even begin to imagine what he's going to do with international relationships.
I'm calling it now, placing my bet and trying to predict the future. If he gets voted in to the white house, by the end of his presidency there will be a new war. If I'm going to go out on a limb, it'll be a world war, and unfortunately we're going to be on the loosing side because we no longer have allies.
Seriously, I don't get it. Why would anyone vote for him?
If you're one of those people that can rationally and logically show me a reason to vote for the racist sexist fear monger, I'd love to hear it.
I don't have any experience with becoming an American citizen because I got that whole thing called born and raised in the states and am a natural born citizen going for me.
Most of the time I try to avoid talking too much about politics. I don't do it at work, I don't do it at home, and I don't do it much of anything because it's just not that often that I get the chance to say it, but it's my blog so I can put this one out there.
There should be no way shape or form that Trump on his current rhetoric should ever be elected president.
The problem that I have with him is that e bases everything off of hatred. Everything he does is based off of fear and hatred for the unknown, and his logic when he fights against those that don't agree with him is as simple as you're either supporting him or he insults you. The worst thing he does is insult immigrants.
I can not stand how he thinks that immigrants that are in the states legally, that are citizens of the country, are the issue. How is it possible that a person that is representing the people of a country that is founded on fleeing oppression and bad politics, is now supporting to throw out and blame those that are running away from oppressive governments and looking for a new opportunity?
What's even more impressive to me is just how many people are backing him even though he's racist, sexists, and quite a bigot.
The really sad part about those words is that they're so overused when slinging mud that no one really quite understands what the actual deffinition of those words are any more. Those words have lost credibility in the impact of what they say, but the sad part about it all, is that he fits the core definitions. They're not inflamatory or hyperbolic in any way shape or form. He is sexists, he insults women, he looks down on them, and treats them as second class citizens. He is racist, because anyone who isn't a white natural born citizen of the United States must be a terrorist that issecretly trying to destroy our economy, a rapist, or a murderer. Most of all he's a bigot. He's unwilling to listen to any other side of an argument. He is under the very strict idea that it is his way or no way.
I really don't know what I'm going to do if he gets voted in for a presidency. I'm really afraid what stupid war he's going to get us in because of his large mouth and 'shoot from the hip' type attitude that is only going to get us in trouble. He's inssulting everyone in the country that he's running for a presidency in, I can't even begin to imagine what he's going to do with international relationships.
I'm calling it now, placing my bet and trying to predict the future. If he gets voted in to the white house, by the end of his presidency there will be a new war. If I'm going to go out on a limb, it'll be a world war, and unfortunately we're going to be on the loosing side because we no longer have allies.
Seriously, I don't get it. Why would anyone vote for him?
If you're one of those people that can rationally and logically show me a reason to vote for the racist sexist fear monger, I'd love to hear it.
Helldrake?
I'm not sure what I should do with my helldrake.
The rest of my army is nice and firey colors and it looks awesome, and then there's this thing as a monstrosity of a model, and I'm not sure how I want to approach it.
Let's be honest. I could field this guy as is and there'd be almost no issue. He's got well over three colors on him (they just happen to be very similar blues and blacks).
The easy way out is to do the metal like I've done with my warp talons, and leave the body blue and move on. That's the easy way out.
The slightly harder way out is to keep segments of it's body blue, and then go into the wings and in one wing do one color blend from the tip to the base yellow to red.
The massocistic way (that as I write it I realize exactly which one I'm going to do because it just has to be done) is to take each individual segment of the wings, and instead of treating them as one unified piece, take one segment at a time and do a color blend of yellow to red inside each segment surrounded by the metal. The real question is if I want it all directional (reds towards the body and yellows going out towards the tip in each area) or if I want it circular where the red is in the center of each segment and then blend it out to yellow where it touches the metal. Nah, we're going to go with each segment being it's own and linear fading reds towards the body, yellows towards the tip.
Yeah, I don't even know why I was worried about it. It's going to take me a crazy amount of time and there's no way that I'll have it finished by the 20th for the apoc game, but it's going to look stupid lovely by the end when I finally have it finished, and that's really the only reason that I'm doing this - to look stupid good and to eat up a massive amount of time.
NO SPEED PAINTING!
NO EASY WAY OUT!
PS - I've started in on Thousand Sons, and am slowly (because I'm getting distracted by other things) working my way through that unit as well. Spoilers.
The rest of my army is nice and firey colors and it looks awesome, and then there's this thing as a monstrosity of a model, and I'm not sure how I want to approach it.
Let's be honest. I could field this guy as is and there'd be almost no issue. He's got well over three colors on him (they just happen to be very similar blues and blacks).
The easy way out is to do the metal like I've done with my warp talons, and leave the body blue and move on. That's the easy way out.
The slightly harder way out is to keep segments of it's body blue, and then go into the wings and in one wing do one color blend from the tip to the base yellow to red.
The massocistic way (that as I write it I realize exactly which one I'm going to do because it just has to be done) is to take each individual segment of the wings, and instead of treating them as one unified piece, take one segment at a time and do a color blend of yellow to red inside each segment surrounded by the metal. The real question is if I want it all directional (reds towards the body and yellows going out towards the tip in each area) or if I want it circular where the red is in the center of each segment and then blend it out to yellow where it touches the metal. Nah, we're going to go with each segment being it's own and linear fading reds towards the body, yellows towards the tip.
Yeah, I don't even know why I was worried about it. It's going to take me a crazy amount of time and there's no way that I'll have it finished by the 20th for the apoc game, but it's going to look stupid lovely by the end when I finally have it finished, and that's really the only reason that I'm doing this - to look stupid good and to eat up a massive amount of time.
NO SPEED PAINTING!
NO EASY WAY OUT!
PS - I've started in on Thousand Sons, and am slowly (because I'm getting distracted by other things) working my way through that unit as well. Spoilers.
Feb 8, 2016
Show And Tell - Warhammer
I finished up the last detail stuff on the last terminator. I'm sure if I spent a bit more time I could polish these guys up even that much more, but my brain doesn't want to do that, so I'm going to stop with them where they are and be happy.
With that being said, just like I did a close up of all of my Chaos Space Marines, it's time to give some close up time to all of my Chaos Space Terminators. It's going to be picture heavy, and I'm going to make the pictures as large as I can without stretching things out too bad, because I want people to be able to see these guys close up and help me know what I can improve on. Seriously, any comments or suggestions on what I can do next time I pick up the brush are more than welcome.
Without any further delay, here's what I've got.
To start it all off, here's the terminator sorcerer, and my leader of my army.
And his back.
Then comes the other leader in the unit, the terminator champion. I'm a personal fan of this model and named him the champion on the pure fact that he has the middle finger power fist.
And then, of course, his back.
From here on out I'm just going to number them. So here comes terminator #1.
And his back.
Then terminator #2.
And his back.
Terminator #3
And his back
Terminator #4
And his back
Terminator #5
And back
Terminator #6
And back
Terminator #7
And back
Terminator #8
And back
And last, but not least, terminator #9
And back
There you have it. My massive 10 man unit of Tzeentch terminators, along side a Tzeentch terminator sorcerer. It's only 650 points worth of models in those eleven figures. Only. . .
With that being said, just like I did a close up of all of my Chaos Space Marines, it's time to give some close up time to all of my Chaos Space Terminators. It's going to be picture heavy, and I'm going to make the pictures as large as I can without stretching things out too bad, because I want people to be able to see these guys close up and help me know what I can improve on. Seriously, any comments or suggestions on what I can do next time I pick up the brush are more than welcome.
Without any further delay, here's what I've got.
And his back.
And his back
Terminator #4
And his back
And back
Terminator #6
And back
And back
Terminator #8
And back
Feb 7, 2016
I've Been Lied To
For a second of a moment, I thought that I liked a song, but then I realized that no, I just really like a bass system that can rock your soul out of you.
Over the weekend I got to go to a BYU basketball game. During the middle of the basketball game (as well as the intro that I was late to) they played Turbulence.
Now, I'm typically cautious about anything that BYU puts together because let's be honest, they're a bit limited in their options of songs that they'll play, so I was shocked when they had this song playing on the speakers and I could feel the beat a little bit. I thought that after jamming just the smallest bit out to this song that I'd throw it into rotation into my playlist and give it a listen, and then I realized that it was a pile full of nothing. It works well for about the thirty seconds that they used it, but in the long run, it does not hold up to what I'm listening to. Seriously, take the dynamics of that song, and compare it against anything that can actually rock the tag of 'hardcore' or even 'hardstyle' and the song gets blown away.
The only thing that it made me want to do was not listen to Aoki's stuff, but try to find a venue where I can listen to Gammer or Dougal live and enjoy their mixes at the intensity they're intended. I really want to feel the bass now.
Over the weekend I got to go to a BYU basketball game. During the middle of the basketball game (as well as the intro that I was late to) they played Turbulence.
Now, I'm typically cautious about anything that BYU puts together because let's be honest, they're a bit limited in their options of songs that they'll play, so I was shocked when they had this song playing on the speakers and I could feel the beat a little bit. I thought that after jamming just the smallest bit out to this song that I'd throw it into rotation into my playlist and give it a listen, and then I realized that it was a pile full of nothing. It works well for about the thirty seconds that they used it, but in the long run, it does not hold up to what I'm listening to. Seriously, take the dynamics of that song, and compare it against anything that can actually rock the tag of 'hardcore' or even 'hardstyle' and the song gets blown away.
The only thing that it made me want to do was not listen to Aoki's stuff, but try to find a venue where I can listen to Gammer or Dougal live and enjoy their mixes at the intensity they're intended. I really want to feel the bass now.
Feb 4, 2016
Lots of Time
I've been dumping a stupid amount of time into this unit of terminators, as well as the terminator lord that goes with them. It's one of those things that I'm hyper critical about my work and I see nothing but errors, but tonight I was getting to a breaking point (I still have two more terminators to do the final touches on) and so I took a picture.
The only thing I did was hit the "auto adjust" button once I was done I out popped this bad boy of a picture.
I'm sorry, but if you're not aware of this, this is awesome. It's so awesome, that I'm almost tempted to post it in original size, stretch out the entire blog and make things look ugly just for it. As annoying and as frustrating as this unit has been, wow, I didn't know it was going to turn out looking like this. I'm not going to finish the last two tonight, but it's just one of those things that I'm starting to understand with this hobby. You get so entrenched in your own work, and you're looking at the closest details you can possibly look at and you forget to take a step back and stare at the big picture. Take that for a life lesson or whatever else you might, but wow, it is important to take a step back some days.
On that note, I need to step back into writing my My American Life pieces. I've been listening to them, I'm just back logged a few episodes and haven't written anything. I've got to get off my butt and give that a shot.
The only thing I did was hit the "auto adjust" button once I was done I out popped this bad boy of a picture.
I'm sorry, but if you're not aware of this, this is awesome. It's so awesome, that I'm almost tempted to post it in original size, stretch out the entire blog and make things look ugly just for it. As annoying and as frustrating as this unit has been, wow, I didn't know it was going to turn out looking like this. I'm not going to finish the last two tonight, but it's just one of those things that I'm starting to understand with this hobby. You get so entrenched in your own work, and you're looking at the closest details you can possibly look at and you forget to take a step back and stare at the big picture. Take that for a life lesson or whatever else you might, but wow, it is important to take a step back some days.
On that note, I need to step back into writing my My American Life pieces. I've been listening to them, I'm just back logged a few episodes and haven't written anything. I've got to get off my butt and give that a shot.
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