Okie-Dokie, Smokie
Today I went to the "sure-shot" places I "knew" I could get a job. Note the quotes around knew. First up was Evil Empire, as John has been bitching about having no-one to work in the mornings. I hate the friggin' company, but I can do the job with my eyes closed, so no prob. Ath least untill something better comes along. Unfortunately, they just hired Shawn Gibson, of drop-dead gorgeous Blood Angel army fame. Damn. "Oh, well," I said to myself. "This could be worse." I then proceded over to EB, where I was practially assured of a job. No, really, that's it. I've just gotta fill out the application and I'm all set. Their store manager just left, leaving a hours vacum that I should be able to fill. Here's hoping that three of the employees recommending me will get me over the hurdle and in the door.
This is not to say that I'll give up the hunt quite yet. As I said, this was the day of sure-shots, just to have something going for me. Tomorrow I'll get up bright and early and look around Potomac Mills, which I suppose I could do today, but hanging around both stores for an hour each just kind of took all the motivation out of me. Primarrily the G.W. bit. Good lord, it's draining having to put up a facade of actually caring what comes out of John's mouth, just on the off chance something comes up in the near future. I even shot the shit with him about army construction, the whole time carefully avoiding the Hobbytown USA employee's constant crusade to break 40k over our collective knees. Mine, for instance, is the 56 terminator army of you're not going to have any fun today.
As for other places I'll try, there's always Suncoast, where I have more knowledge of the anime section than any of their nimrod employees could ever dream. Sure, it may be hell, but there's the discount, along with the fact that I could potentially hook-up with other anime fans (note the deliberate avoidance of the term "otaku", as I have decided that I hate anyone who goes around describing themselves as such) and hopefully finding more people who share my primary interest.
*News flash, I just found out I'll be working at EB after all. Go me.*
On other topics, it looks like I won't be going to Otakon this year, as it will be far too expensive for my poor little budget to deal with. That's O.K., since the rampant geekdom of Katsucon sort of soured me to cons again. Don't get me wrong, the occasional hot girl who could actuallt pull off the Rei, Auska, or Mai Shiranui (the super-bouncy kunoichi from Fatal Fury) helped alleviate the pain or every cellulite-ridden Chii in attendance, but in the end I just wind up spending an inordinate amount of money on crap, any-way. And as I've mentioned before, I have too much crap. My Auska collection has, however, reached nigh-disturbing proportions, and that's good. I supposer I need more of a focus when I go to these things. This year, I aimed to only buy Auska stuff (which I succeded in) but I did come away with a fair amount of Lilith paraphenalia as well. For those of you who don't know, she's the really dirty-minded succubus from Darkstalkers (Vampire Savior) 3. She's the one on the right in my little pic there.
I think I'm only working untill 6:30 at Hobbytown on Friday, which should make the possibility of movie-viewage that much more realistic. I'll check tomorrow when I do my sort-of interview tomorrow at EB, just to be sure. Normally all I concern myself with on schedules is when I have to be there, which is much easier for my addled little mind to keep track of.
As for my current state-of-mind, it's much better now that I have a real job prospect in my immediate future. Much less depression / rage at the universe in general. This is not to say I won't continue to take perverse pleasure in the suffering of others (well, most others- people I care about excluded), but I'll be able to do it from on high, saying "at least I'm not that sack of shit."
Right now, I think I'll get back to painting. I've taken a hiatus from painting coherent forces (armies, warbands, gangs), so as to fine-tune my painting skills. So far, I'm really pleased with the results. I don't get sick of a particular color scheme, so I tend to devote much more attention to an individual model than I did before. Perhaps next I'll pick up an airbrush off of ebay in order to learn how to work with them. I don't want to start with a real good one, in case I screw something up and ruin it. I've had a real desire to start doing garage kits recently, and since I make a concerted effort not to play wargames any more (unless I mean to beat up on some smartass) I've been looking for a way to focus my newfound love of painting into something more rewarding than just picking up random Reaper minis to paint over the course of an evening or two. It's amazing how when the focus of painting minis shifts from a necessary evil to be overcome in order to play a game to being the entire reason for the undertaking, an enjoyment arises. No longer do I "have" to paint stuff. Now I "want" to paint it.
I've moved almost entirely away from the use of inks and washes. Sure, I'll still thin paint with ink in order to keep the opacity from suffering, but no longer do I paint, drybrush, ink minis. This habit was broken mainly by Alex complaining about how much better my minis would look if not for their glossy finish. After a few painting pointers from Jeff Dane and Andrew Kaye (two of the painters who I most admire) I was able to totally revolutionize my approach to painting. Now, unless it's a metalic surface, I cringe when I reach for an ink and think to myself "how else can I approach this problem?"
I'm also thinking of picking up a guide to painting non-metallic metals. I hear Reaper actually puts out a pretty darn good one, and maybe I can get some tips from Juan (the former G.W. manager). Once I get access to a digital camera, I'll have to put up some pics of my new stuff. The paladin I did a couple of weeks ago I'm particularly proud of.
By the way, Bob, do you still paint? For a while there you were doing it just to do it, the same way I am now. Just curious.
That's about it. I'm still in a pretty anti-social mood (sorry Steve, you just happen to be here...) so I'm enjoying the isolation I'm getting right now. I'll update again as soon as something interesting happens. Unfortunately, as you can tell from reading this, that's usually when something bad happens.
This is not to say that I'll give up the hunt quite yet. As I said, this was the day of sure-shots, just to have something going for me. Tomorrow I'll get up bright and early and look around Potomac Mills, which I suppose I could do today, but hanging around both stores for an hour each just kind of took all the motivation out of me. Primarrily the G.W. bit. Good lord, it's draining having to put up a facade of actually caring what comes out of John's mouth, just on the off chance something comes up in the near future. I even shot the shit with him about army construction, the whole time carefully avoiding the Hobbytown USA employee's constant crusade to break 40k over our collective knees. Mine, for instance, is the 56 terminator army of you're not going to have any fun today.
As for other places I'll try, there's always Suncoast, where I have more knowledge of the anime section than any of their nimrod employees could ever dream. Sure, it may be hell, but there's the discount, along with the fact that I could potentially hook-up with other anime fans (note the deliberate avoidance of the term "otaku", as I have decided that I hate anyone who goes around describing themselves as such) and hopefully finding more people who share my primary interest.
*News flash, I just found out I'll be working at EB after all. Go me.*
On other topics, it looks like I won't be going to Otakon this year, as it will be far too expensive for my poor little budget to deal with. That's O.K., since the rampant geekdom of Katsucon sort of soured me to cons again. Don't get me wrong, the occasional hot girl who could actuallt pull off the Rei, Auska, or Mai Shiranui (the super-bouncy kunoichi from Fatal Fury) helped alleviate the pain or every cellulite-ridden Chii in attendance, but in the end I just wind up spending an inordinate amount of money on crap, any-way. And as I've mentioned before, I have too much crap. My Auska collection has, however, reached nigh-disturbing proportions, and that's good. I supposer I need more of a focus when I go to these things. This year, I aimed to only buy Auska stuff (which I succeded in) but I did come away with a fair amount of Lilith paraphenalia as well. For those of you who don't know, she's the really dirty-minded succubus from Darkstalkers (Vampire Savior) 3. She's the one on the right in my little pic there.
I think I'm only working untill 6:30 at Hobbytown on Friday, which should make the possibility of movie-viewage that much more realistic. I'll check tomorrow when I do my sort-of interview tomorrow at EB, just to be sure. Normally all I concern myself with on schedules is when I have to be there, which is much easier for my addled little mind to keep track of.
As for my current state-of-mind, it's much better now that I have a real job prospect in my immediate future. Much less depression / rage at the universe in general. This is not to say I won't continue to take perverse pleasure in the suffering of others (well, most others- people I care about excluded), but I'll be able to do it from on high, saying "at least I'm not that sack of shit."
Right now, I think I'll get back to painting. I've taken a hiatus from painting coherent forces (armies, warbands, gangs), so as to fine-tune my painting skills. So far, I'm really pleased with the results. I don't get sick of a particular color scheme, so I tend to devote much more attention to an individual model than I did before. Perhaps next I'll pick up an airbrush off of ebay in order to learn how to work with them. I don't want to start with a real good one, in case I screw something up and ruin it. I've had a real desire to start doing garage kits recently, and since I make a concerted effort not to play wargames any more (unless I mean to beat up on some smartass) I've been looking for a way to focus my newfound love of painting into something more rewarding than just picking up random Reaper minis to paint over the course of an evening or two. It's amazing how when the focus of painting minis shifts from a necessary evil to be overcome in order to play a game to being the entire reason for the undertaking, an enjoyment arises. No longer do I "have" to paint stuff. Now I "want" to paint it.
I've moved almost entirely away from the use of inks and washes. Sure, I'll still thin paint with ink in order to keep the opacity from suffering, but no longer do I paint, drybrush, ink minis. This habit was broken mainly by Alex complaining about how much better my minis would look if not for their glossy finish. After a few painting pointers from Jeff Dane and Andrew Kaye (two of the painters who I most admire) I was able to totally revolutionize my approach to painting. Now, unless it's a metalic surface, I cringe when I reach for an ink and think to myself "how else can I approach this problem?"
I'm also thinking of picking up a guide to painting non-metallic metals. I hear Reaper actually puts out a pretty darn good one, and maybe I can get some tips from Juan (the former G.W. manager). Once I get access to a digital camera, I'll have to put up some pics of my new stuff. The paladin I did a couple of weeks ago I'm particularly proud of.
By the way, Bob, do you still paint? For a while there you were doing it just to do it, the same way I am now. Just curious.
That's about it. I'm still in a pretty anti-social mood (sorry Steve, you just happen to be here...) so I'm enjoying the isolation I'm getting right now. I'll update again as soon as something interesting happens. Unfortunately, as you can tell from reading this, that's usually when something bad happens.