What did Santa bring you?

Merry Xmas everyone!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  Only 3 more days left and we'll be into 2011 which hopefully will be bringing me more motivation to paint some figs.

I hope everyone also got some great loot from Santa this year.  I personally am very happy with what I scored.  I'm a very difficult person to shop for, so it's always great when people can get me stuff that I don't already have.  So this post I want to dedicate to my latest painting project which is finished and what I got for Christmas.

So of the late I haven't been much on playing the classics, ie: 40k, Fantasy, Warmachine, or FoW.  I've quite gotten into a game called Uncharted Seas.  It's a fantasy naval battle not unlike Man O' War.  I've pick up two starter fleets, Dwarves and Orks.  I just finished my Dwarf fleet.  Here are some of my pics.  I'll be posting the Orks next.  Just getting to start them after the new year.

 So this is a snap of the finished fleet.  It's a battleship, 3 destroyer and 6 cruiser.

A closer look at the battleship

A destroyer

and lastly a cruiser

So now it's time to show off what I got for Xmas.  Let me say again how I love the stuff I got this year.  It's almost all stuff that I'm gonna use on a daily basis.  So the first thing I'm gonna show off is this Arkham Horror expansion that I got.  This game is a favorite among the gaming group.  We just love to play this game but when you put all the board and card expansions together, this thing becomes MASSIVE and quite overwhelming :).

Next, my friends Melissa and Adam got me the Seafarers expansion for Settlers of Catan.  We've been playing thing game quite a bit lately and getting the expansions is only gonna insure that this game stays in rotation. 

One of my most favorite gifts this year.  My lady got me this awesome coffee press.  I used it this morning too and I must say that it does make a better tasting cup of coffee when you make it this way than with a drip.  This thing will get a ton of usage.

So this is a bottle of beer that came with a gift card to Binny's that was my secret Santa gift at work.  Oh how Santa knows me well.  Haven't opened it yet, but I'll be drinking this thing during New Years Eve.

This here is a stocking stuff that my girlfriend got me.  Not sure what it's supposed to represent but what the hell, I'll read it and maybe I'll glean some hidden gem from the mind of Charles Shultz.

This by far is one of the coolest things I was able to procure of the winter holiday.  I got this from a White Elephant gift exchange at a Christmas party.  It's a set of shot glasses with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it.  Love it!

Another expansion for the Settlers of Catan that my woman got me.  Can wait to try this one out.

I got a set of dice for the Arkham Horror game.  I'm glad the lady got this for me as I was eyeing this set of dice for our games of Arkham Horror.  Another gift that will see much usage.

The final two gift my girlfriend got me are also awesome.  The first is a Shadowrun sourcebook called Feral cities.  Covering many of the overrun cities of the Awakened World.  I've been waiting for this book to come out so I can add some of these cities to my campaign.  The last gift is a book reading lamp which, according to my girlfriend, I needed desperately as to not keep her up while I read and she tries to sleep.

Well that's it for now.  I hope everyone had a great Xmas and that you like my dwarf fleet.  Look forward to an exciting new year of friends, family, the Bears in the Superbowl and some great gaming!

Xmas Time!

Well Xmas draws near and I'm drawn to thinking about what I asked for on my wishlist which coincedentally is all boardgames. I'm not sure when I drifted away from RPG's and table top wargaming. I mean, I've always enjoyed a good boardgame on the occasion but of the late I've really been putting in the overtime with games like Settlers of Catan, Last Day on Earth, the revamped Talisman, Arkham Horror, Cash and Guns, Robo Rally, etc, etc, etc.

It makes me think that maybe it's the group I've been playing games with every once in awhile. Seems like it's board games with a smattering of Shawdowrun, Eberron, and Vampire. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining about the quality of my geek time. I'm just making an observation.

Or is it something else. I was chatting with my buddy Stu the other night about how we kinda fell away from table top wargaming and he's in the industry for God's sake. For me I think it's because I just don't have a solid group of players anymore. Though I will say that I have definitely moved away from 40K and such. I'm liking the square bases more lately. Uncharted Seas has captured most of my attention. I do likes me a good sea battle from time to time.

So I guess back to my original statement...wishlist...I'm looking over my list again and it's mostly expansions for Settlers, Empire Builder which is a railroad game that uses crayons and a map. Another Arkham Horror expansion and the latest version of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It the old days this list would've been miniatures galore. What's on everyone else's list? Maybe I need new ideas?

On another side note, anyone try that Kinect yet? I'm still up in the air with this contraption. I hear good things. In reality I've read good things. Let me know what you guys think. If I don't post again soon, I want to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

Away a long time

Well, seems like I've been neglecting my blog for far too long. Life just has a way a pushing these little projects of mine aside. This time (I know I've said this before) I'm going to make an effort to keep this going.

Well what's new...picked a few new games...Starcraft 2, Blood Bowl: Legend...wait for it....dary Edition. Starcraft, what can I say. Classic! Not much are as far a new but the story was fun to play and I just can't hate this game. Still love playing with the crew multiplayer. Some new units and some old units gone. I miss the Wraiths in multiplayer.

Blood Bowl. In my humble opinion another classic. If you love the board game then you'll like the computer version. There's a real time version to the game that I haven't tried yet cause I'm scared that I might like a real time version of this turn based game. One day I'll brave that option and see what the hubbub is. All the races are there. I'm digging some Norse beat downs though I did get my ass handed to me by a Lizardman team the other day. The multi-player was a little confusing to figure out but once I did it seemed to flow real nice especially with trying to play with a comrade.

Picked up a new Droid phone awhile back. The Samsung Galaxy S Captivate. I must say that some people have labeled it the iPhone killer but I personally feel that it doesn't take much to kill the iPhone. It's a 16gb phone with an upgradable microSD slot up to 32gb which give you a total of 48gb. That in itself is a Sonic Kick to the iPhone. The apps are there in the Droid Market. I really haven't found an app I couldn't get on the Droid, though I'm not the tech junkie that some of these yahoos are. I must say that I do loves me the Captivate.

RPG front...let see...started using the Obsidian Portal sight which is a fantastic tool for GM's. Created a page for my Shadowrun campaign that allows me to post updates to the players without having to worry about if I sent the wrong email to the wrong person. Allows me to jot down notes that I can access where ever there is an internet connections. There's an adventure log for the players to edit so they can keep track of what they've done in their campaign. Just a lovely tool if you're a GM.

Well that's all so far. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. Gonna be heading to a friends house for orphan Thanksgiving where I think Cash & Guns and Creationary are on tap for entertainment. Maybe some Win, Place or Show. Creationary, if you haven't picked it up is a friggin' awesome game especially if you love Legos. It's basically Pictionary with Legos. How awesome is that? Anyways Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

R.I.P.

So just a quick note and shout out to a dear friend that The Geeks With Attitude lost. Our friend Don Peak finally ended his fight with cancer with a loss. We've known Don since high school, even played in a cover band with him. He was a good friend and we will miss him greatly. Here's to you Don Peak, "Lechyd Da!!" (That's bottoms up in Welsh for those who don't want to google). Don you were a good friend, good father and a good soldier. My only regret is that I wasn't able to be there at the end like the rest of our friends.

Who ya gonna call...

Well many a thing has happened over the past few days that I'd like to mention briefly.

First of all, still haven't decided if I'm gonna bite the bullet and get the Iphone. Many a good compelling argument, I'm just a wuss and don't want to spend $100.

Let's talk sports for a bit. Thank God the Lakers won, or should I say Phil Jackson won so I can stop saying I want the Lakers to win. 10 RINGS! I'm going to have to jump on the band wagon and say I think that Phil Jackson is, to date, the best NBA coach of all time. 10 championships! 6 with my beloved Bulls and 4 with the not so beloved Lakers. I think it's a testament to Mr. Jackson to reach the top with egos like Shag and Kobe then quit for 2 years and the come back and win 2 more. Even though I don't like Kobe Bryant much, anyone can see the punk from 4 years ago has change to a team leader under the hands of Phil Jackson. I even remember Phil say that he couldn't coach Kobe. I guess the break was all he needed to get enough strength to punch through Kobe's attitude. Phil's quote of his mentor, Red Holzman sums it all up, "Individual sacrifice for the good of the group." Congratulations Phil Jackson.

So I picked up Ghostbusters from the store today and I've played it for probably an hour now. I must say that I'm impressed with the game so far. I tend to enjoy games more when they have a story. A good story. So far the story coming from Ghostbusters is thoroughly enjoyable. I was a little bit dubious when I heard that Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script. I wasn't sure how guys who write movies were going to be able to translate a script for video games. I think they did alright. More impressed with the fact that they got the original cast to do the voices of the characters.

Gameplay, it's 1st person shooter where, you guessed it, you use your proton pack to shoot ghosts and evil beasties. Of course there are upgrades you can buy for your pack like, you can reduce the stream wavering so it shoots more in a straight line. You can upgrade you PKU scanner and such. I like how you have to wear down the ghosts by hitting them constantly with the stream until they're a bit knocked down then you have to "wrangle" them by using the capture stream and work them toward the trap which you have to drop. My only negative is that it is easy to lose the trap when you throw it down. It's hard to see the guide light during game play when you have 3 or 4 streams flying about the room, and then you lose the ghost trying to find the trap. I'll talk about this more as I invest more time into the game.

I'm hoping to get some painting done sometime soon, I think my next project will be to finish my team tournament army from Adepticon 2 years ago. It's my pre-heresy Thousand Sons Space Marines. I'm going to have to retool my list as GW changed the damn codex again for the, oh I don't know, 12th time. When I get motivated to start that, or should I say finish that project I'll try and post some pics of my progress.

Motivation to paint right now is a rare commodity in Chicago right now.....maybe I can get some imported from Baltimore....

Lord of the 10 rings....

I can not wait long enough for the Lakers to finish off this series. There was a time when I thought the Magic could pull this off, but after watching them kinda self destruct in OT....again, I'm more than confident enough to say that I think Phil Jackson is going to win this series. 2 days off before playing game 5 in LA. Odds are in Phil's favor now.

Let me be clear that I'm rooting for Phil Jackson...not the Lakers. I want Phil Jackson to have 10 rings....one for each finger...as a head coach. I know he has eleven total, 2 as a player and 9 as a head coach. One for each finger. I want Phil to be able to go to some upstart punk like Marbury or D Wade and wave both hands in their face and say, "TEN BITCHES!"

Ok, now I want to talk Iphone. Who has one? Jay I know you do, but what I'm specifically asking is how is the battery life...really. All the tech geeks, who load it full of shit and then say it's runs out constantly. I want to really know, from regular users, how is the battery life. 1 day, 2 days, etc. I'm wavering on getting one. 99 bux is not a bad price now.

Anyone know of any good Warhammer 4ok tournaments going on in the Illinois area? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Getting Older?

Okay...I really thought I knew myself. I got up this morning to cranberry muffins baking. Rebecca (my lovely wife) enjoys making breakfast for the family on weekends. A few minutes after I got up, the buzzer goes off and here comes said wife with 2 muffins for me....with butter. I know, I know. "Wow" you're saying. Would your significant other, or insignificant other as the case may be, butter your morning muffins? Would they??? Would they really??

Rebecca and the kids are fighting over who needs to clean the children's bedrooms. Brennah feels that since Braeden made the mess in her room, she should make him clean it. Braeden wants his mother to clean his room because he stepped on Superman and hurt his foot. I clean the living room and even break out the vaccum and quickly run it over the floor.

After finishing the living room, I have a decision to make. Break out the new GW Commissar Lord I need to paint, go lay down in the bedroom, or help the kids clean their rooms. Two of these decisions will no doubt get me in trouble with the misses, who has a wedding to go to later and "doesn't have time to clean up after her three children". I should take offense, but been there, done that...and it does not lead to French Toast with warm mayple syrup on Sunday morning.

My decision??? You would think it was suck up the anger and just sit down and start to paint? But no...I actually decide to go outside and mow the lawn??? What the Hell??? Being the weekend, I should want to be lazy and enjoy the time. But I actually brave the heat to make my lawn look just a little bit better. I tell ya....I really must be getting old. The Jason I know just wants to relax and veg out on the weekends. Some where with this age comes responsibility and a small case of pride in my house, or at least the way it looks to everyone else.