Unemployment Day 10

If the student loan goes through, I'm going back to school. Exciting, for sure.

Unemployment Day 7

So, after one week of being jobless, I have figured some things out. I am going to school. I would say back to school, but I dropped out of college a decade ago, so that hardly counts. There is an IT school with 4 month classes starting on Sept. 14. I'll be going to class until mid-January, slowly eating away at my savings, but the upside is that I will be certified to be a programmer, something I've done on my own since I was like 5. As a bonus, the fellow I talked to said that my background in video game reviewing for www.diehardgamefan.com gives me a leg up, especially if I want to take further steps towards being an instructor or technical writer. I know it is hard to tell from this blog, but I can actually write, when necessary. One more, slightly self-aggrandizing note, I scored in the 95th percentile on the numeric part of the test, a test that is designed for people who are already proficient in the field. That was a good feeling.

Unemployment Day 3.5

Got my Learner's Permit and did some driving. Fun. I am becoming really frustrated. Do I go crawling back to the casino business and get steady employment? Do I tough it out and learn a trade? Do I go to IT school for 4 months and hope that works out? I'm really stuck.

Unemployment Day 2

When Heather gets up, we are going to the DMV to get my Learner's Permit. Since it will eventually snow, I will need transportation besides my Triumph, eventually. If things go well, I could start one of the training programs I have been looking at sooner than later and we could use our savings to buy me a small pickup truck or the like. I would hate to sell the bike, since I still owe on it and I enjoy riding it, but I will if I have to.
No list for today, besides going to bed early to try and get off of my night shift sleep schedule. I'm going to do more research on cabinetmaking and maybe look into community college courses to take alongside the Carpentry training. I want this to work.

Unemployment Day 1.5

As I'm getting ready for bed, I feel pretty good. I have found two apprenticeship programs that I can apply for, one for plumbing, the other for carpentry. I am leaning towards the carpentry school, since it is 3 miles from my house and I like the idea of learning to build. Maybe I'll be a cabinetmaker! After all those years at the casino, producing nothing but cheap thrills and false hopes, it would be nice to actually make something tangible. I might be overly romantic about it, but I love the idea of MAKING something with my hands and tools. Being a skilled tradesman would be a step up from being a skilled cardsharp. Besides, I do play Dwarfs, so it would be appropriate.

Day 1

I put both feet on the floor and got up. Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
Wake up
Apply for unemployment
Mow the Lawn
Sort through Grandma Jean stuff
Update resume
Finish King of Fighters XII Review

This is my list for today.

5 down!

Unemployed

Well, my job of 7 and a half years just evaporated. Poof. Now I have a little severance money and no job. Lovely day, though.

Exorcist

As I have stated before, I have a Whirlwind sprue and spare Immolator parts to convert an Exorcist from. This week, I have given some thoughts to a different conversion. I was eying the Empire Helstorm Rocket Launcher. It is a cannon mounting with nine rockets on it. After a quick sanding of all the Fantasy icons on the rockets, I could mount the rack inside an open backed Rhino, like a Basilisk. This would be pretty cool looking, I suspect, and better reflect the theme of the Exorcist than a tech looking rocket launcher. As a bonus, I would have the Helblaster bitz left over to do as I please with. Maybe a Hydra conversion, if I ever do some Imperial Guard?

Plans

So, this weekend I will have no painting time, which is a bummer. The upshot is that I get to spend some time with my little sister and visit 31st Century, to pick up my order (2 Sisters with Meltaguns and 1 Seraphim with Hand Flamers) as well as a White Dwarf and some paint.

Big Ideas

So, tonight, I will either be painting and chilling out with a rum and pineapple juice or going out with friends. Either way, it should be a cool night.

Monday, Post-Mortem

So, I got my Shatter review done early, got the lawn mowed, and got some of Heather's Wood Elves assembled. Tuesday morning, I will prime up the Woodies and paint some of my Sisters. I ordered a few more of the Sisters of Battle minis I need from 31st Century. I ordered a pair of Meltagun Sisters and a Twin Hand Flamer Seraphim. The Seraphim was on a whim, but I'll need her second set of Hand Flamers if I am going to use the Seraphim. That leaves my current shopping list looking something like this, in descending order of importance.

1x Rhino, since I have the spare Immolator and Whirlwind bitz to make an Exorcist

1x Exorcist. I do not know if I am going to get a Forgeworld or a Games Workshop one. The Forgeworld one will blend in with my Whirlwind/Immolator kitbashes one better, but the Organ one from GW looks pretty keen. I might just kit bash a second Whirlwind/Immolator, but that could be more expensive than a proper one.

2x Heavy Bolter Sisters. For my eventual Retributors squad.

3x Storm Bolters. I have the disturbing idea of a 4 Storm Bolter Dominion squad with a Storm Bolter equipped Sister Superior. Not the strongest unit in the world, but pretty killy, on paper. Might go with 3 Storm Bolters, 1 Meltagun, and a Sister Superior with a Storm Bolter.

These three are all of about equal importance and are more ideas for the future than planned units.

6-10x Adeptus Arbites with Shotguns. Not the strongest unit. Not the cheapest unit. There is just something about a squad of shiny black Adeptus Arbites hopping out of a shiny black Rhino and laying down some serious shotgun fire. I might even have to spring for a Uriah Jacobus to ride with them, if I ever get them to begin with.

30x Sisters of Battle. I would like to be able to, on occasion, field an all foot based horde of Sisters. 100+ nuns with machine guns would be sight to see.

1-2x Mordian Iron Guard Squads. I love the classic Perry Brothers Imperial Guardsmen, but the Mordians are my favorite. A foot platoon would be okay, but two Armoured Fist Squads with Sentinels and a Leman Russ to back them up would let me expand my army without painting too many more Sisters, open up the way to Apocalypse scale games and Super-Heavy tanks, and would give me a foothold on a second army, if I so desired to start one.

Under the Milky Way

Today is Monday, which means I am compelled to paint. I have two Sisters begging to be finished. I will be priming some Wood Elves for my wife and assembling a couple more. I might have time to clean and prime some stuff for my army, as well.

As an aside, does anyone have any suggestions about resin bases? A dozen or so of my Sisters have broken or clipped tabs and I figure they might as well get resin bases. My other minis are getting Tamiya Black Lava painted on to their bases, unless I thing of something more novel.

Did I mention I have 1000-1500 words on Shatter for the PS3 due tonight, too? And I have to mow, so I better get down on it.

Disobiedience

So, back to the subject of game stores. What makes a good one? What makes a game shop the kind of place you want to go? I'm curious what other people think about this.
In my case, I have a few ideas. I like stores that are clean and well lit. This sounds like common sense, but anyone who has gone into a strange game store and found it to be moldered and wet smelling worse will tell you that a clean store is more inviting. This is something that Pulp Fiction gets right. That store is immaculate and open, inviting. Friendly staff is nice, too. If there is only one person working, they probably should not be playing a game or making non-business calls. A gaming area is important, but it should be inviting, not full of half-painted minis that were randomly placed by some crazed store monkey. The most important thing, to me, is stock.
I do not get many opportunities to go to a game store. In the last year, I have entered two stores, once each. This is not a function of me buying things from the Internet as much as it is one of location. Both times, the things on my shopping list were unavailable and would have to be ordered for a future visit that may never come. Simple things, too. I have a long standing Rhino Challenge. If a store has an Imperial Rhino in stock, I will buy it. I made that pledge 4 years ago, including a period in which I went to Pulp Fiction weekly. I have yet to buy a Rhino at a store. Four years and no store has had one in stock. That is the most basic piece of 40k kit, a model used by Space Marines of all ilk, Daemonhunters, Witch Hunters, and Sisters of Battle. I think a store should always have a half dozen or so Rhinos in stock. To me, they are the second biggest Games Workshop impulse buy. Number one being... White Dwarf. It blows my mind how many times I have gone to shops that under-sell White Dwarf. Even at my least active periods in the hobby, I bought White Dwarf. I have over 100 in my gaming area. If I am behind a few months, I will gladly buy back issues. I find it shocking how rarely a store will have the current or a few months of back issues. Now that $9 cover price is an issue for later.