my new CMG?

Christmas brought me another Monsterapocalypse starter. I have 2 starters and one of each type of booster, plus the book. This means that I should have enough pieces to play with the game enough to see if I actually like it.

The website has some offers for limited figures. I’m chasing down the buy-the-first-3-issues-of-the-comic for a Mega Sky Sentinel. This is a more achievable promo than the buy-24-boosters for a Mega Ares Mothership – especially at $14 a pop. That’s over $300 for a promo I’ll chase down on ebay instead. If I like the game I’ll probably spend that anyways but I just don’t have it to spare before the end of the month.

Boxes of joy under the tree

Some people (who celebrate Christmas) open their gifts on Christmas Eve and just leave the Santa gifts and stockings for Christmas morning. Some don’t open any gifts at all until Christmas morning. Some people open 1 gift on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning. (Some people don’t get any gifts at all to open – that must really suck.)

Shan normally got to open one gift – a new set of Christmas pajamas and had to wait for the rest until the morning. We used to open our gift exchange gift the night before and the rest in the morning. Sometimes, after getting back from midnight mass, since it was already Dec 25, we would open the rest and leave stockings for when we woke up.

With the kids, we usually do pjs the night before (which usually elicits the wails that all soft gifts deserve) and whatever their uncle gets them and leave the bulk until the morning.

save Heroclix

The new word from saveheroclix seems to be that Pinata and Catalyst are joining forces – with Catalyst looking for the entire WizKids Lines and Pinata handling just the HeroClix part of it.

More power to you both if you can pull this off. Especially if it doesn't change the heroclix line too dramatically again.

KB Toys back to bankruptcy

I found out today that KB Toys is going back into Chapter 11. It had done so in 2005 and they closed the two closest stores to us at that point – the ones in Grand Forks and Fargo, as well as the one at the Mall of America. Since then, the KB Toy Outlet in Albertville has been much more like a regular KB Toys and less like the super place it was when I bought a trunk full of model kits for $1 - $5 each (Star Wars, Star Trek, Armageddon, and Lost In Space kits. I had to open the boxes and repack kits together to fit them with our luggage).

I will miss them. They were one of the few true toy chains I had encountered. Toys R Us has made Babies R Us a big part of their store, and I still miss the Suncoasts and really miss the Media Play.

Heloclix new home?

It sounds like there are two solid bids for at least the Heroclix part of Wizkids – Catalyst Game Labs and Pinata Games. Catalyst is already doing the Classic BattleTech and a good fit to snap up the new Battletech. Pinata is a group of former Wizkids employees trying to keep Heroclix going.

We'll see who ends up with it, and what happens to the Hammer of Thor expansion that should be at the manufacturers right now.

Cold enough for you?

242 Kelvin. That’s our temperature now with the wind chill. On it’s own it only 245K. That’s -41C and -28C for those still using Celsius – for those of you using Fahrenheit, figure it out for yourselves. We usually get a few weeks of this kind of weather during winter – and late fall.

It will be nice when winter finally starts on Sunday the 21st.

projects on hold

I've become quite used to taking digital pictures of my projects as I'm working on them. Since losing my camera in the states, I've been putting off a few projects until I can get a new one to record my progress.
Plus, I'm always a bit burned out after Wincon / Halloween / Valleycon.
That and the wife always gets twitchy when projects take up space in the living room.

So, if Santa doesn't take pity on me and bring me another one, I may have to see what we can find in Boxing day / week sales.

Re-election?

Okay, to get you up to speed, in Canada we run on a Westminister system of parliamentary government.
Westminister system
which allows the queen's rep - in our case the Governor General - certain powers:
Lascelles Principles
Prorogation

An example of this was the so called
King-Bing Affair

A coalition government is allowed in this type of system and has actually been the case several times prior.

This isn't some arcane concept brought out by bitter parties but an actual part of the rules by which our country is governed.

Okay, now that we're on the same page, this is how it stands as I see it (granted, again, I am not the big Poly-Sci guy):
The Blue party became the government with a minority - choosing not to form a group with another party for a majority. They put through a budget that the other colors didn't like and in voting it down would normally force a new election. To prevent a new election, the other colors are forming a group which, having the majority, are recommending that they be the government instead of having to go through a new election (a side note - had they done this right after the election, they would have been the ruling party instead).
The Governor General, being the GM of parliament, will have to decide this on Monday.

It should be an interesting weekend.
2008 dispute wiki

Meat Head - directions

Start by adding your garnish to the tray. If you are using the reduced Jello, more power to you. If you are using the fruit roll-ups, start with a strip from ear to ear and from forehead to the back. Build up a coverage over the entire skull - this gives the first layer of meat a bit of a grip and, should they get to it, a bit more gore at the end.


This is the skull completely covered. If your roll-ups are fresh, this should be easy. You may moisten your fingers to help with the joining if needed (use a glass of water). I have also added the olives in the open tomatoes for the eyes. You can also use yolks from boiled eggs or boiled eggs themselves.


I usually start with a layer of ham on the inside as it has a nice fleshy color. It may not be kosher - but I don't think a head of meat should be. You may need to cut some of the slices into smaller pieces as needed for the nose and fold pieces for the lips.


Depending on the look you are going for, you can also other meats for additional layers. We usually use turkey or chicken, but you can also use roast beef or even corned beef for a nice burned look. Ham itself leaves a nice flayed look.


In this case we used roast beef for hair and eyebrows. As a final garnish, we sprinkled a bit of rice on the head to simulate maggots.


Wrap the head in saran wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Have bread and condiments as needed, as well as forks and plates.

Enjoy!