Saturday, February 27, 2010

The hobby break continues...(and birthday begins)

So, I have been busy.  The way we track our productivity at work has dramatically changed (honest, it is even called "Production" and accounts for 40% of my yearly rating).  Due to this, I have been shifting when I hand work in for credit in order to ease the transition from the old system to the new system.  Well, the the first bi-week of the new system is ending I as I type this.

The pool table....
If you never saw the table, here are pictures of it protected and unprotected.  Hopefully it will be gone by the end of March, and I can start to clean up the basement and figure out how my hobbying will continue.  Until then, I am pretty much in lock down so I don't damage the table.




The Camera...
So I ordered two lens for my birthday.  Honestly I have enough hobby stuff.   $1200 of camera parts is no bigger than a land raider, I love this new hobby.  So I got a 60mm Mikro Nikkor and Nikon 70mm-300mm telephoto zoom.  I spent last night learning how to use a true macro lens on an orchid (results below).  This lens while profession grade, it more specialized than thought.  It does great close up work, but you have to be right on top of your subject.  It has been too windy to actually do anything with the 70-300mm (it is a f/4.5, but still a decent pro-sumer lens).


Thursday, February 18, 2010

What exactly have I been up to?

So around in early January I sat down at my modelling table (which is a gorgeous and covered for 3 consecutive years pool table) and carved up my thumb really really good.  Between the dry temperatures and constant irritation from shoveling snow the healing took longer than normal.  So now it is (mostly) healed and hobbying can resume.

Of course there is a catch...
I finally found some to buy my hobby table, er, I mean pool table.  For those who have been in my basement over the past 4 years, that giant 8x4 gaming/utility table was actually a pool table.  I am close to finalizing  deal to get rid of it, which will change the way I hobby.  Soon the basement (at my pace soon should be about 2015) will be transformed from a carpeted workshop to a remodeled den and sitting area complete with gas fireplace.

The end of Star Wars Miniature Battles...
This cute little game from Wizards of the Coast is slated for retirement along with the rest of the Wizards' Star Wars lines as they have opted to not renew the license.  On the one hand it saves me money as it is one less thing I can spend money on, while on the other gaming loses a great gateway/casual miniatures product.  This may or may not open up the Star Wars license for newer and better things.  Only time will tell.  As I already own   nearly every model for the game, I should not have any issues with crazy binge buying.

The Great Purge...
So with the pool table going, my hobby/collecting/gaming habits need to change.  It is time to once again start drawing down on stuff I bought and will never use.  There stuff down there I know I will never use already, so what i the point of keeping it around.  I mean honestly, what am I going to do with a Bretonian, a High Elf and two Catachan unopened battalion boxes?  Time to find some kids getting into the hobby and give them a head start.

The Blizzard of 2010  (assuming we don't get another one)...
I shoveled a lot of snow.  My roof and gutters appear to have suffered minor damage.  Damage which of course I don't have a three story ladder to reach.  I lost a few shrubs.  Nothing major when it is all said and done. The big loss from the storm was my ice rink collapsing.  No more playing ice hockey for probably a year or more.  So I am one more step towards becoming a hermit.

The random new Hobby...
So I bought a new DSLR camera in October.  I have really taken to it.  At first I was just shooting my miniatures, but I have started taking pictures of all kinds of stuff.  recently, I thats been origami birds in strange locations.  For those of you who think wargaming is expensive, try buying professional grade Nikon camera lenses.  I am slowing learning how to deliberately adjust the shutter speed and aperature to create cool pictures.

Star Trek Online...
Over the snow break, I played way too much.  After that initial 40 hours, now I am settling into a nice 20-30 minutes a day of it.  Game while now much less buggy and more user friendly, does seem like bare bones ans unfinished.  Now that the game play is fairly sound (not perfect, but good), Cryptic Studios needs to add content at rapid pace.