Project 365: Day 31 - A Retrospective and Throwing a Light into the Future

I really need to shorten my titles.

This is my 31st post on Project 365. I'm ending a month. I've actually had enough of an attention span to actually get something done for more than a week straight.

Now I will be the first to admit that I didnt have a perfect posting record for this month (check title, check date, for those who werent paying attention) due to some circumstances, some avoidable and some not. But regardless, I was able to stick to this blog for the first month without my attention flagging.

This blog, which started as a way to keep me motivated on my hobby-related stuff turned out into a hobby of its own. This blog has actually started eating into my my hobby time! Didn't see that one coming. Insert witty comment here, tack snide remark there.

Looking back at January I was able to cover some of the stuff I like doing. I've posted about games and local gaming events, I've gone out to eat at places I've never been to. I've posted some old "work in progress" stuff. I've gotten some positive and constructive feedback from the folks who've read up on the blog. Even with the amateurishness of this blog, I honestly believe I'm on to something worthwhile :) This blog has sparked a renewed vigor in the stuff that I already do, and is also inspiring me to get more experiences out there.

So what's in store for February?  Here are some of the things I have in mind for the month and beyond:

- FOOD! Roxane and I have been talking about trying out some places to eat in Binondo. I will definitely try to schedule a Binondo romp within the month :D budget permitting.

- Painting Miniatures! I recently got myself a Druid Wilder as a new addition to my army. I plan on posting a progress report on this mini as well as other pieces from my backlog  :)

- Gaming! With an upcoming Warmachine/ Hordes League and freer weekends I plan to give more detailed Battle and Event Reports in the future. I also plan on helping Kim with the WMH Philippines Club in any way I can.

- Terrain! I've always talked about contributing terrain pieces to Fortress. This would be a good time to cross that off my to-do list.

- Doodles! I want to draw more and I'll be posting more doodles and artwork in the future

I've got one month down and I have 11 more to go and a lot of stuff to get done :)

Right! lets do this :D

Project 365: Day 30 - I'm free!

I'm finally free of that goddamn project. I'm finally going to settle down into my old job.

But why am I still anxious?

Maybe because I KNOW the folks I left behind aren't ready

Maybe because what I leave behind is a legacy. It reflects on me

Maybe I just cant be comfortable being relieved when I know some people around me are facing dilemmas of their own.

Urgh.

Project 365: Day 29 - Food! - Tokyo Cafe

Me and Roxane decided to try the New Tokyo Cafe that opened up in Megamall.

Now usually me and Roxane have big appetites (can't ya tell?) but this time we weren;t particularly hungry. We just knew that we had to eat because its been some time since our last meal (about 6 hours or so).

Trying new places to eat in is always scary as theres always the chance you'll walk away disappointed.But since we werent that hungry we decided now would be a good time to take a chance. We decided to split a dish and get a bowl of soup.

Tokyo cafe is another one of those japanese themed places that seem to be popping up all over the place (like Zango, Pepper Lunch, Bubble tea...) and they gave the vibe that they were on dry run. The waitresses were attentive enough but they seem to be preoccupied by one thing or another. The place's decor was nice but they had this big mural that showed a paris(?) train station and that just didnt make sense to me. Ah well.

We ordered the Hamburg Steak with Garlic sauce. I was a bit iffy with it because the picture in the menu made out the garlic sauce too be a bit too white. It was just screaming "MAYO!" and im not very fond of the stuff.

The food didnt look like the pic in the menu. Big surprise. This is a good thing because the garlic sauce was now a bit more appetizing to me but this was also a negative because the pretty char marks on the burger were nowhere to be found:

The other annoying thing is that we thought that the hamburg would come on a sizzling plate. The pic and the dish had that wooden thing you serve sizzling plates on and everything. But no. Plate was cold and the wood was just for effect.

The food itself was alright. Two juicy, well-seasoned burgers that were a good size. But aside from that the stuff wasnt anything special. There are a lot better options there that would meet or beat this place in terms of price and taste.

The clam chowder was good. We originally ordered the Shrimp Bisque but they didnt have it.   The clam chowder could stand to be a bit creamier in my opinion but it made up for it with chunkiness.

Now would I come back here? Maybe. Again, there's just a lot of other options out there. Maybe I'll try out their so called "smoogees" and their beef dishes (theres two i think) look interesting. I'm certainly not in a hurry to go back though.

Average cost per person would be about Php 300 by the way.

My favorite moment of the entire experience was watching Roxane try to cross her eyes:

she fails.

Project 365: Day 28 - Friday Night at the Bunker - WM/H Tournament

Surprisingly I was able to wake up and make it to the Friday Tournament at the Bunker.

This is the second Warmachine/Hordes event held at Oberon's Bunker at E.Rodriguez and there was a good turnout of players :) some folks were late and had to take a bye but we had enough warm bodies to start.

We shared the space with the Warhammer crowd and the place was really lively. The games went underway and while unfortunately I wasnt able to get a lot of pics as I was playing, I'm proud to say I made a good showing in the tournament itself.

Before the start of the tourney, we were kidding around and Wolf predicted SJ would win using his Magic 8 ball app in his iPhone.

I first went up against resident Pressganger Dan. Glad to see him participating in games again :)

Circle Orboros vs Legion of Everwhite...err Everblight.

The power failed for a few minutes during our match and we went on regardless. Dan would declare that he "rolled sixes" in the darkness.

Second match was with Jeff  and his eHaley army.

He was playing fully painted with a very pretty Cygnar army

Jockeying for position. The swampgobbers earned their keep here as they kept the Defender from being effective.

The game ended with a knockdowned eHaley within Kromac's threat range.

I went up against SJ in the finals. Trolls vs Circle. I regret not being able to take pics for this last part but im sure Kim has some. It was a laugh-a-minute game as SJ knew I had to leave for work after the tourney so he was "stalling". The game with SJ was odd as we both knew that it would come down to killpoints at the very end. I was able to kill his Axer for 6 points but Refuge on Mulg denied me a big meaty target to kill. Dice-down was declared and SJ's last roll killed a Feral for 9 points.

SJ won the tourney just like Wolf's iPhone Magic 8 ball predicted.

Who wouldve thought?

Anyway the day was fun with good folks and good games and not a lot of stress, just as a night of gaming should be. I'd like to thank Kim for being the Tournament Officer and Oberon for letting us use the venue and setting up the tourney date. Oberon even sprung for food and drinks for everyone, WM/H and Warhammer player alike.

To cap it off here are some of the other pics i managed to take:

Arvin Tan. I was anticipating that he would join and I actually meta'd to account for his armor heavy Butcher list. He didnt make it on time. lol

Dan and Pat Palma

Wolf and Scrivener facing off

Wolf's LOE facing a wave of angry Menites. Dice down was called and Wolf was down to his caster Absylonia, with all beasts biting the dust.

New guy with a Skorne army. Haven't played against him before.

New guy's Skorne vs SJ's trolls.

Project 365: Day 27 - If...

If I wake up on time today I will be here:

Room 305, Elco Building. 202 E. Rodriguez Avenue (De Los Santos Annex Building), Quezon City

Playing against these guys:

And there will be much dice chucking.

Operative word : IF

Project 365: Day 26 - Extra Credits

I dont really have a post today so I'm just going to share a link:


Extra Credits

This link is actually the reason I dont have a decent post today. I spent all that time watching the vids.

This is some of the most well thought-out, well written stuff I've seen about something I love :)

Take a few minutes to watch if you love Video Games

Project 365: Day 25 - Battle Report: First games of the year

5This past Sunday i was able to finally lay down some metal and chuck some dice with the guys at Fortress. It has been weeks since my last game and I wanted to see how rusty I've gotten. And there was rust, and much squeaking.

First game was against Wolf. We planned this rematch in advance, using the exact same list we had from our last Unstoppable Match.

Bakerofish (Circle Orboros - Kromac) vs Wolf (Legion of Everblight - Epic Thagrosh) @ 35 points.
Scenario: Incursion SR11

Now this battle was tense. We both had beast heavy armies with some support units. We also both had movement tricks (EThag's feat and Warpath for Kromac) and we both relied on hard hitting beasts for our offense.

Wolf's advantage was EThag's nasty feat (beasts get to make a full movement and make one free attack) and he had more warm bodies to throw at me. He had lesser and light warbeasts that move fast and hit hard. He also had Typhon and he was fixing to rectify his past mistake of not taking advantage of sprays. What I had going for me was a pretty good threat radius, a model that counterslams (Gnarlhorn) and the Warpwolf Triumverate.

The first turn was jockeying for position. By turn 2 and the scenario finally triggering we both made our moves. I took the gamble of putting my Feral down the middle and the other two wolves flanking. Gnarlhorn was on bodyguard duty making sure to always put a counterslam threat around my caster. I had to give him several threats now as I was wary of his feat. My initial plan was to make him commit to the middle of the table where Kromac can get an assassination run on the surprisinly squishy Thaggy. Wolf plays aggressive and I was counting on him not having any fury on Thaggy by the time he was done. I kept some fury on myself as I was gonna get hit by his feat next turn.

I took a beating on Wolf's turn, most of my beasts were wounded pretty bad and Wolf was able to get a Scythean, a shredder and a Theraph(Raek actually...-Wolf) to Kromac on his feat turn. EJ (one of the locals who was providing color commentary during the game) declared me dead. I had to agree. But then one of the things that me love this game happened.

Lady luck has the sweetest smile.

By rights I should've lost by that point but Kromac's defense 15(!), camped fury and incredible luck pulled me through. The Scythean WHIFFED!!! I couldnt believe it.

(edit: Wolf says the Scythean missed the gnarlhorn in front of Kromac. The Shredder that followed was the one that failed to hit. And he also shouldve made attacks with Raek)

I almost botched my kill turn as I totally didnt see one of his support models blocking my Gnarlhorn's lane to Thaggy. I also couldnt get an assassin run on Thaggy as he was too far away. Switching gears I then healed up my Pureblood and warped for Ghostly, charging towards Thagrosh to end him.

Close game. Good game. I was damn lucky.

Bakerofish (Circle Orboros - Kromac) vs aerolb(Cygnar - Prime Caine) @ 35 points.
Scenario: Incursion SR11

This is the game where Karma catches up to me.

Aerol had a shooty list with some longgunners, a hunter, a lancer and a centurion. He also had the Black 13th in the flank which I hate with a passion.

Since this was the scond game of the day it kinda was a blur to me. I remember being in a good position for most of the game ( I remember being cocky and actually saying "If you dont kill me now, youll die next turn...remember what I said about karma?) and Aerol's plan to slam my gnarlhorn  to knock me down failed pretty badly.

What happened over the next few turns was Aerol taking advantage of that complacency and me mismanaging my damage. Defense 15 didnt save me this time. The only beast I left open for transfers was killed by the centurion (damn piston spear) and I ended up eating a lot of shots. Embarassingly enough I actually lost to a Caine potshot :p.

This game, it wasnt luck (or lack thereof ) that did me in. I mismanaged and Aerol took advantage of that. He took out the advantages I had, he struggled but he was able to pull it off in the end. Another aspect of this game I love, even if I didnt win.

I dont think I've ever won against this guy.

Can't wait to get some more games in :)

To end this post, some pics of the denizens of Fortress:

Pantyman Fred! Store Overseer

Kim! I need to make a feature about this guy soon

I wasnt able to take a pic of EJ so I'll take care of that next time :)

Project 365: Day 24 - Doodles! Logo redesign 2

Combining elements of the old and the new:


Tell me what ya think :D

Project 365: Day 23 - Doodles! Logo redesign

Testing a logo redesign for the blog. Will add in the text later.

What do you think?

edit: This is supposed to have a transparent background not a black one. Anyone know how to fix this?

edit: There I figured it out.

Project 365: Day 22 - Food! Uncle Moe's Shawarma Hub

Roxane and I had brunch at Uncle Moe's Shawarma Hub today :D I spent the entire day awake AFTER a full shift at work so that explains the lateness of this post.

Uncle Moe's Shawarma Hub is located in United Street in Kapitolyo Pasig. It seems the area is about to be heavily developed over the next few years so this location is a good choice for whoever owns the joint. if the name hasn't given it away the place serves shawarmas (is it redundant to say shawarma wraps? I think so) and other persian and mediterrainean inspired fare. Far from authentic, they have adjusted the food to fit more to the local palette.

I first heard about Uncle Moe's  from Joyce (my boss and my big sis in the office) and the place came highly recommended. She even went as far to tell me to try one particular dish (more on that later) and to avoid making the mistake of not getting that dish the first time I visit. Now there are two people I trust completely when it comes to food recommendations, one of them would be my actual biological sister Kristina and the other would be Joyce. I then planned my weekend around this trip (me and Roxane were previously going to hunt down the Ortigas branch of Mister Kabab)and set off to finding the place.

I'm not going to write stuff about the ambience and decor of the place as per food blogging 101. I'm the type of guy who would eat standing up at a street corner and STILL give the place full points if the food was good enough. And of course if they were clean enough. So long story short, place was serviceable and clean and thats good enough for me.

We tried the Kofta Balls stuffed with cheese as recommended. I immediately ordered two plates and extra bread for us. The food took some time to get to the table though for some reason even though we were the only ones in the place. We arrived at close to lunchtime so I guess most of their customers come around after office hours.

Meatballs with gooey Quickmelty goodness

After about fifteen minutes, two steaming plates of meatballs arrived. At first we were surprised at the size of the servings and thought we were going to bring home one of the plates untouched. For about 150 bucks you get 5 stuffed meatballs in sauce with a piece of pita. The meatballs arent the italian sized monsters that you would probably encounter elsewhere (god that sounded less dirty in my head than writing down).

The Kofta balls are good :) not of the "mindblowing this is the best" type of good but its certainly what I would call "happy food". It's the type of thing youd get when you're tired from work and you just want to unwind and get some good grub, nothing fancy nothing complex, just straight out good. Happy food. Can't go wrong with meat, cheese and bread :)

The other thing to note here is that even with two servings, Roxane and I polished off two plates and 3 pitas each. Now keep in mind that we are both big eaters (and I skipped breakfast)  but the meatballs were surprisingly "light". If  you've encountered Sbarro or Yellow Cab meatballs Id categorize those as "dense and heavy" meatballs. Me and Roxane finished off 5 each and weren't bloaty afterwards.

The pita bread were a bit weird though. They were a bit doughier and stretchier than I'm used to having , almost coming off as undercooked. Espasol-ish. One thing I can say is that is a hint that they're not using old bread.

Overall I'm definitely coming back to Uncle Moe's for some solid "Happy Food".

Maybe I'll ask them to heat the pitas a bit longer next time.

Nums!

(bad writing and parenthetical remarks abound!)

Project 365: Day 21 - Miniatures - Ghetto Lightbox!

I've been working on getting better pictures lately. Since I don't have any means of securing a better camera for now, what I can do is to try and improve the lighting conditions when I take pictures

My ghetto lightbox made of a pilfered toybox (sorry Migs) and my desklamp plus another lamp. It was a bare bulb that i put a cardboard tube collar on. I therefore conclude I need a bigger box and some gradient backdrops

Project 365: Day 20 - He lives!

The Axer! It swings again! plus other pics

One angry fella...

... with his pal in the bag

Circle Orboros Stonekeeper with glowy rock

one of my earlier pieces, pKreuger! I'm debating on whether I repaint him or not...

Project 365: Day 19 - I love awesome things

Another link to another blog and video accompaniment.

Im working on my self appraisal so shut up

Ever since i started blogging it seems im reading more blogs.

anyway I really like this because something awesome came from the need to NOT be sad.

1000 Awesome Things

Project 365: Day 18 - Inspiration and Direction

At times when I get tired of trawling the interwebs for memes and hobby-related stuff I usually go to Http://www.Ted.com and I take a listen. You got some of the best and brightest of the world, and even some people like you and me talk about extraordinary stuff. It really is inspiring, humbling and encourages introspection.

After a quarter hour of listening to some of these people I often find myself asking "What have you ever done?"

this sometimes reduces me into a whimpering quivering mass of useless flesh in a fetal position

anyhoo one of the talks that stick most in my mind is this:



:)

Project 365: Day 17 - Tragedy!

:(

I was fiddling around with my photo setup when I turned around and heard a sickening crunch.

I promptly turned around and felt my foot hit something, sending an errant object clattering to a far corner of my work area

Twas my Trollblood Axer ...

Repair and repainting currently underway.

note: This was supposed to be yesterdays entry but the internet was down :P

Project 365: Day 16 - Painting Miniatures - Forces of Nature

I finally found the charger for the digicam! Win!

I still suck at taking pictures with it! Fail!

But to celebrate, here are pics of   the painted Megalith and Mulg the Ancient:

Mulg the Ancient aka Mulg "who is a bitch to highlight"

Megalith: The angle is making him look like he's leaning way too far back than he actually is. This was a concern as I when I was making him I thought he would be too top heavy but he turned out to be pretty well balanced.

In the last blog I lamented how I wasnt able to take pics of Megalith's branches. Here's a good view and it should give you an idea of how I sculpted and attached the branches.

 The photos are making the green look more "green". The greens are supposed to transition to a yellow for a semi glwy effect but the pictures just aint capturing that.


Ah well.

Thanks for looking.

Project 365: Day 15 - Rant - Performance Appraisal

We're supposed to be completing our Annual Performance Appraisal at work. I always find this process awkward and annoying. While I understand its necessary, what makes the process uncomfortable for me is that a part of the process is a "Self Assessment" - you're supposed to be reviewing how you performed in the past year and write down your goals for the next.

I really can't look at my performance objectively at all. At times i really just want to write down : "Yes I could've done more that past year but I really don't think you're paying me enough right now to get my 100%. No, I dont really have any goals for the next year. I'm happy with what I'm doing and I'm generally okay with what I get for the effort I put in. My bigger Goals really dont involve the company at all..." How could you say that without getting fast tracked out of the company? If I were a a manager I'd fire my sorry ass.

This year is whole new level of awkward because aside from all of the above, they're asking us to rate ourselves against a SCALE. 5 is the highest and 1 the lowest.

Really?

I dunno if they really thought this through because when I try to give myself a score the following thoughts come to mind:

5 -  "I dont think so..." -  Note : Your boss will always, ALWAYS have something negative to say about how you perform. If not, they shouldnt be your boss anyway

4 - " Hahahahahahahahahaha....PROVE IT!"

3 - "You're not putting enough effort into this appraisal are you?"

2 - "Why did we hire you again? Maybe we can get someone better"

1 - "This assessment isnt a joke, son..."

Urgh.

Project 365: Day 14 - Running out of steam...

So the search for the camera charger continues. I might resort to just borrowing Roxane's digicam for some of the stuff i plan to do :(

...and I have to admit I'm kinda running out of steam.

The good thing though is that this feeling was fleeting. Hopefully I wouldn't encounter that drained feeling again for some time. While I was typing this article I actually felt the fatigue of the day fade away and in it's place was the excitement for some of the stuff I plan to do.

I'm looking to post more doodles, put up some more modeling logs and go on more food adventures with Roxane. I have a lot planned for this blog and I think I'm on to something good. For now mainly it's something good for me as it has given me my second wind creativity wise. In the future, for my current (all 3 of you...) and future readers I hope what I have in this blog will be something good for you as well.

Stay tuned.

Project 365: Day 13 - Link Dump!

Hey folks! Don't really have anything hobby related that I can blog about today and the things that I want to vent about dont have a place in this blog.

So in lieu of a real blog post I'll just post some of the things that made me smile today :)

Today's background music brought to you by:




I want this shirt so bad!
http://www.redbubble.com/people/krisvahl/t-shirts/5757736-5-chewie-and-han

I collect these and I hear they're having their 13th anniversary:
http://www.livingdeaddolls.com

 This one's distracting...


 Hopefully I'll have something substantial to post about soon :) so stay tuned.

Project 365: Day 12 - Doodles - Logo

Still couldn't find my camera charger :| yeesh.

In lieu of taking pics  for articles I decided on creating a title image for my blog. Just look up. Not totally sold myself on the layout. Will try out some other layouts over the next few days .

Comments? Suggestions?

Project 365: Day 11 - Miniatures - Assembling Megalith Part 3

Check out  Part 1 and Part 2

Greenstuff-a-go-go!

So last stretch of assembly and this probably involved more greenstuff than I have worked it to date. Since I had to reposition the arms I had to replicate the "wood" sculpt on the shoulder joint to cover up the flat mating point of the original sculpt.

Again this was easier than I had anticipated. Using an Xacto knife lubed with petroleum jelly I was able to texture the greenstuff into a good approximation of the bark. I was also able to copy the sculpting of the rope by starting with putty sausages. And no, I did not sculpt with my drill bit :P

Once that was dry I pinned the arms into the shoulders at an angle seen below:

Come at me bro!

I think I managed to repose the arms into a less awkward pose and more of a "welcome to the gun show" pose. I felt this helped emphasize his size more. Anyhoo feel free to let me know what you think. At this point though I wasnt done with him. I had to replace the dinky shrub on his back with something more befitting a character woldwarden.

I took some wire and some of my paperclips. With a little twisting and bending I had the beginnings of an armature for his tree. After attaching it to Megalith via the pinhole in his back I them repositioned the branches till I was happy with how they were placed and started wrapping greenstuff around the armature to make it look like bark.

While wrapping the armature in greenstuff I had some problems with the putty shifting and moving in ways I didnt want it to. In hindsight, I couldve made my life a lot easier by smearing superglue to the armature and letting it dry and thus giving the greenstuff a rougher surface to cling on.

Here's the final assembled Megalith. I really wish i took more backshots of him because I had to sculpt the tree into his torso in a way that made it look like the tree was sprouting from him, like it was a part of him.

This is what happens when you swallow seeds...

One other regret I had with this is I wish I had also taken pics of megalith during the painting stage. I will be posting a pic of Megalith painted in the future. That should be the first thing i do once i find my charger or secure another digicam.

Tell me what you think.

Project 365: Day 10 - Miniatures - Assembling Megalith Part 2

From the ground up :)

if you haven't yet, please check out Part 1

I like my warbeasts to be on a scenic base as this makes an already large warbeast all the more impressive. During the dryfitting stage for my large warbeasts I take the base into account for the final pose. My material of choice is cork :) specifically cork board. I like cork because it's easy to work with, letting you carve, cut and tear it into natural looking shapes that look like convincing scale rock when painted.

A medium base, a large base some corkboard and an Xacto knife. Pay no attention to the stray hair. I command it!

One thing I noticed is that a medium base fits onto a large base almost perfectly. I used the medium base as a template and scored into the board with an Xacto knife. I didnt cut all the way through so I can get a slightly ragged edge. Viola!

During the dry-fitting stage I noticed the gap in Megalith's torso. After scoring the mating areas with an Xacto knife I then lined it with greenstuff.

I used some petroleum jelly on the end of my brush as a smoothing tool

I also attached the legs. The sculptors were kind enough to have the legs attach to posts like an action figure but this made some new problems as just attaching the legs would make it pivot. To fix this i put in a little greenstuff for the legs to stick to

Any excess greenstuff was either trimmed off or sculpted like vines

Once the bond was solid I attached the head with some greenstuff and angled it so that Megalith was looking slightly to the side

Once everything was dry I started drilling my pinning holes. Those were located on the foot, Megalith's back where the twig was supposed to be and finally under the shoulders. The shoulders had tabs where the arms were supposed to slot into. i wouldnt be needing those so I had to slice and file them off. It was easier than I expected. Just remember to cut away from you at all times. With the plan I had in mind I decided to drill into an angle into the shoulder

I then also drilled straight through the base and cork to fit a paperclip through. I used a fairly large paperclip that I roughed up a bit with a file.

Trimming the excess. I have since dubbed my clipper "Lord Tetanus". Obviously I made sure to not cut in this position as thats a perfect way to take an eye out. Protect yourself from flying bits please.

If you'll notice I carved a step into the cork for the foot to rest on.

I then mounted everything with a lot of superglue. The cork soaks up a lot of the superglue and in the process hardens the cork nicely :)

With the upper legs and torso resting on the base to dry I then proceeded to sculpt the arms.

Watch out for part 3.