I apologize for my lack of activity

I apologize now for any lack of activity on my blogs.  As some of you may know, back in January of this year I was laid off from the Photo Studio I worked for when they company that I worked for decided to close all of our studios in the state. Since that time I had been searching for a new job. Good news, I got one just a couple weeks ago.

I was hired as a shift manager for Taco Bell (a Mexican themed fast food restaurant for those not familiar with it). While right now I am not a Shift Manager yet, going through my team member (the entry position) training, on how to do the open prep, making the food, closing, etc... The Restaurant Manager plans on having me do this over the next couple weeks before my Shift Manager training begins. Right now I am looking at working around 32-40 hours a week based on the current work schedules.

I also have coming up in December a Photo gig to take a friends family Christmas photos, then a couple days after Christmas I also have a Wedding Vow Renewal ceremony that I get to perform for another friend/former coworker and her Husbands 5 year anniversary. I am also going to be start saving money for a Friars/Monks Robe and/or a Bishops costume for use at the local Renaissance Festival, I may have a wedding next fall out there to perform, and I want to make sure I am "in character" for it.

This isn't to say I am not still getting the occasional game in where I can. Been doing some Fallout New Vegas on the new laptop, and some X-Com Enemy Unknown (and the new Enemy Within expansion that just came out earlier this month). I have also been reading the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft (currently starting The Dunwich Horror, having finished The Dreams in the Witch House and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Colour out of Space, The Curious Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and At the Mountains of Madness). Luckily I have so far passed all my Sanity Checks and have avoided any contact with creatures of the Mythos, lol. I have also been busy using my free time when not playing a game on the computer or reading brushing up on my calligraphy, primarily to make sure the Wedding Vow Renewal Certificate looks good when I fill it out (would rather have names and date filled in by hand and not printed on from the computer as it gives the certificate a more personal touch).


Due to the new job and the work schedule I don't know when I will be getting any new content posted on my blogs. I am still here lurking and checking out the blogs I follow when I have the free time

Alive and kicking

I am still alive and kicking. been busy re-reading the As the World Dies trilogy and As the World Dies: Untold Tales 1, 2, & 3 by Rhiannon Frater. Also enjoyed the Season Premier of the Walking Dead and must say loved it.

Got the new laptop I mentioned in my last post, been busy getting everything up to date on it, and getting the files I want on it on it. It is an AMD Quad core processor with 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD, 17.3" HD screen. I can also install a 2nd HDD in it if I chose to later on (already looking at 1TB+ 2.5" HDDs). Have put a couple games on it, like Fable 3 and Fallout New Vegas, and so far haven't had any problems running them

Other then reading Rhiannon Fraters books again and messing around with the new laptop, been busy chilling with friends and getting games of Munchkin, Fluxx and Zombies; The Game in. We have played a couple games of ATZ, unfortunately they ended horribly since my one friend still hasnt gotten the idea Shotguns = many zombies attracted to the noise.

I still need to get off my butt and finish painting all the Wargames Factory Zombie Vixens I have, still need to finish the last 7 or 8, that are already assembled and primed (plus the torso/crawler zombies). I also have a coupel of various metal survivors that I need to assemble, prime and paint.

WooT Woot, getting a new computer and some other info

Well as some of you may know back in 2011 my laptop died on me. I have been stuck using my parents desktop computer for everything.

I am now lucky enough to be getting a new (well refurbished) laptop computer thanks to part of a settlement with eMachines knowingly using faulty floppy drives in their computers, that I was part of.

I ended up going with a 17.3" Acer laptop, it will be a AMD 1.4Gz Quad Core, with 4GB Ram and 500GB HDD.

I fully intend to transfer all my Zombie gaming info to the new laptop along with my Starship gaming info.


Now on the Zombie gaming front, I am planning on building when I can some additional cardstock models, Cathrdea Noctis (with the retrofit) and Wildwoods Grove both by World Works Games. I am also looking at the West Wind Brotherhood Biker gang (armed Biker Priests), some nun minis and generic priest minis to go with the  Cathedrea Noctis build. I currently havent decided on the name of the Cathedre Nocits build. Now the small chapel in Wildwoods Grove will be modified so it is slightly bigger and most likely will be a Universal Life Church (a real church headquartered in Modesto California,that I am part of, they are a non-denominational church, having ordained ministers of many faiths around the world, some with congregations, some without, I myself have been one of their ministers for years, ranging from the various Christian Denominations, to Islam, to Judaism, to Hindu, Wiccan, Agnostic, etc... Their services (at least at the headquarters in Modesto) are an open service and any one of their members are welcome to take the pulpit during the service, other congregations run by ULC ministers operate under different formats, some similar to actual church services, with a structured format, while others operate in an informal format similar to the ULCHQ, it all depends on the minister and their religious denomination).

Now i am not going to get all religious on you, I would like to share a bit about the ULC (this will be a brief nutshell, you can get more info by going to the sites mentioned below) since I did mention them above and am thinking of having the Wildwoods Grove Chapel being a ULC Church. It was founded in 1959 by Rev. Kirby J. Hensley and his wife Lida, under the belief that every man (and woman) has the right to pursue their own religious belief, their one Doctrine is "Do only that which is Right"

The ULC has been refereed to a a Box top Ordination since they are willing to ordain almost anyone without the individual having any Seminary training. The do require that you use your real legal name, and the ordination isn't instantly conferred upon submitting the application, it is actually reviewed by members selected by the Board Of Directors. As the ULC Bookstore site mentions the Ordinations are not done by a computer, but by a person.

There are now a number of "church" websites claiming to all be the official ULC church, all but a few of these are even affiliated with the ULC HQ in Modesto, California. One of the biggest offenders is the Monastery, they were part of the ULC, until the original sites owner experience a hostile take over of his site.

If you would like info on the Universal Life Church the only official and approved sites are Universal Life Church Headquarters and Universal Life Church Online (also known as the ULC Bookstore) there is also a forum available on the ULC Bookstore site, if you would like further information. Now there is one other site, it is known to the ULCHQ and while not an Official ULC site, they do have a good working relationship with the ULCHQ, it is the Universal Life Church Seminary, the Seminary was started by a ULC minister initially for her congregation, and has since grown into a site to help other ULC ministers, offering various theological courses (such as the Master of Comparative Religion, Dr. of Christian Ethics, and even Master of Wiccan Studies), Rev. Amy Long will also forward any ordination requests she receives to the ULCHQ.

Honorary Mention Post over on Starbase ARC

The Honorary mention post for my Contest Winner, Sean, is up over on Starbase ARC. You can view the post and he chose to have named after him here Seans Honorary Mention

You can also see what he chose as his prize on his blog here What Sean Won from Me

I also have PapaSpanky's Honorary Mention post over there on Starbase ARC. It can be found here  PapaSpanky's Honorary Mention. I had thought I posted that it was up over here but I noticed that it was saved as a draft that didn't have the link, so figured I would edit this post and include the link.

Zerloons Honorary Mention on Starbase A.R.C.

As Zerloon's name was drawn as the 3rd place winner in my contest, his prize was an Honorary mention on my Starship Gaming Blog Starbase Alpha Romeo Charlie. He also had the opportunity to have either a ship or a Starbase/Station named after him in my games universe. He chose a Station.

You can view the post with his Station's background fluff and some pics of the station too here http://starbase-arc.blogspot.com/2013/06/zerloon-casino-luxury-center-and-hotel.html

Just be forewarned the Fluff is still a rough draft. I will have to go back and clean it up, add things, subtract things, etc...

And the Winning Spaceship Game Faction name is, oh yeah and the Contest Winner too

The winning name for my Primary Spaceship Game Faction will be: The United Star Force for the Governmental side and United Star Navy for their Military Side.

 Now on to what you guys are probably waiting for:

I did make one small change to how I picked the winner. Instead of just the voters for the winning faction, I took all the names of the followers who voted, along with the two I regularly game with locally and put them in the drawing hopefully getting everyone.

The Winner of the prize is Sean as seen below using the List Randomizer at Random.org

The Winner is: Dave Lister, err I mean Sean

Honorable Mention goes to:
PapaSpanky
Zerloon


Again here were the Prizes For Sean:

The winner will receive his choice of a Miniature ($10USD or about £7 price limit) from Reaper, Zombiesmith, Irregular Miniatures (Spaceships), Ground Zero Games, Studio Bergstrom or or Brigade Models, in addition I will name a Starship (or Starship class), star system/planet or a Starbase after them in my campaign universe.


Prize for PapaSpanky and Zerloon:

These individuals will receive Honorary mention on the new Blog, and also have a Starship or Starbase named after them (they get to chose).

I am also about a Consolation Prize going to Vampifan for coming in last place in the contest. If I do most likely he will receive a Participation Certificate and an item or two that's either laying on the Projects table gathering dust or some stuff from the Bitz Bin or one or two of the "Dime Store" Spaceships I recently bought 144 of, ultimately I don't know yet.

I will be trying to get a hold of Sean tomorrow via Email or a comment on his Blog to hash out the details for his prize.


I am also hoping to hold more contests in the future.