Un-Intended Hiatus

Hello, I’m Back!

I did not mean to take a 6 month long hiatus but I did. No real reason, blogging is not a hard thing for me to do, but I ended up taking kind of a break there. I did stay busy first half of 2016 though.

In a nutshell, first half of 2016:

1) After hosting the Saga tournament in Portland last fall I was asked to take over the one at Enfilade this year; which I did. It was good, I learned some things.

2) I sourced from Old Glory and began painting my English Civil War Scots Covenanter army.

Old Glory Miniatures 25mm Lowland Pikes ECW-40 and Lowland Muskets ECW-41 (pikes are seperate add weapons PSJ-01)

3) Not getting a lot of Bolt Action in after painting them Finns. Oh well, what is a historical war gamer if not a person that has minis on the shelf not doing much?!

4) FINALLY played Scots in Saga. I started painting them last year but never finished. Still need to paint most of them but I had fun playing them and am looking forward to more games with them.

Old Glory Miniatures 9th Century Scots with Spears and Command SVS-06

Other than that my life has been busy and grand with the ups and downs of a working man and his family.

In non-gaming news I’ve been working on my Viking shield for my VNA group. Next project is to finish my wife’s Viking knife – a basic job. I bought a filet blade and will mount a birch handle to it and make a simple leather sheath. In 2 weekends we are having a “Viking Picnic” where everyone brings a quasi-documentable summer time food to share. I’m doing rye-flour flat breed.

Old plywood SCA shield, removed all furniture and covered in thin canvas, painted with acrylic paint, applying rawhide rim.

I got a PS4 for Xmas (I bought one for the family). I got myself Fallout 4 …. That was a mistake! What a time-suck!! It’s an incredible game though. I’ve a few other games but that’s my go-to. My wife is a Mortal Kombat X gal.

I went to the ER end of April for a minor thing that turned major. All cleared up though and all is well … except the bill…

Been going to a lot more metal shows this year. I usually try to mix it up with other kinds of music I like but metal is where I feel the most enjoyment. I’ve had some really good times at these shows and have been since Hoverfest II last summer. Speaking of shows, I just went to go see John Carpenter this week, he played music from his movies. That was awesome as I am a fan of his and The Thing is not only my favorite horror and sci-fi movie but one of my favorite movies of all time.

My metal vest... or "kutte" as some like to call it.

Not following a lot of TV shows lately. I’m still on The Walking Dead train but I fear I don’t like Fear the Walking Dead much (I want to, really). The latest Season of Fear ended much the same as all zombie-media ends, our survivors walking away from some burning failure. Boring. I do like Preacher though.

I’ve really gained an interest in reading Historical Fiction, though my tastes are for certain eras. The main era is, obviously, Viking or Dark Ages. I’ve read through all of Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles as well as James Nelson’s Norsemen Saga (Fin Gall being the first book). Just recently I finished Culley’s The Bastard’s Crown, a novel about Norman knights in the conquest of England.

As far as other medias go, particularly social media and focused on Facebook, I’m kind of done. I’ve never been good at pin-pointing specifics in a timely matter but right now is a bad time for social media. It brings something out in people that does not come out in face to face interactions. The concept is positive but how it’s playing out in real life is poor.

Remember when we all thought ESP would be a cool power to have? Reading people’s minds? Well, we got it now and it’s social media. Now all I can say is that people I respect make themselves look like idiots – A LOT OF THE TIME. I’m not a genius myself, actually I’m average at best when it comes to IQ. I’ve also partook of looking like and idiot on social media. I’m just now recognizing it’s true value or maybe more like how it lacks any value.

One thing I have learned using social media is that I am an “opposing-view-guy”. I tend to find the meta-fault in an opinion. I’ve learned to not state it as, regardless of my intention, it is seen as an attack on a person’s intelligence and values 100% of the time.

For example, a few years ago I, literally, copied and pasted a written law on a subject regarding an issue. This was the following interaction:
“That’s just your opinion Gabe.”
“No, that’s actually the law that is in the books regarding this subject.”
“Opinions are like ass holes Gabe.”
“Again, it’s the law, not my opinion.”
“You’re part of the problem. You don’t listen or compromise.”
“I’m all ears, I posted the law so that we could discuss from a knowledgeable vantage point.”

“Again, you are not listening.”
“Never mind…”

This was from a person who has a Masters, accolades, and is in academia. I was unfriended soon after this exchange (later found out that a few unfriended me over that exchange), no problem to me as I gave up around then.

As the plumber says, “Well there’s your problem!”

Today with all the reported shootings, wars, presidential cycle, and injustices in the legal system all I’m seeing on Face Book is declarations of allegiance to some cause, threat of unfriending if one does not follow some codified terms of social actions 100%, accusations of whether you are an “ally” or not, and a lot of look how stupid they are posts. I miss the halcyon days of food pics and Most Interesting Man Memes!!

God Bless you World's Most Interesting Man - and nice Clutch reference!

All that said, I declare I am slowly moving away from social media. It’s making me not like people and I don’t want to do that.  I’m still going to use it for hobbies and interest; I recently found the tab that fills my FB feed with just the pages of the groups I like, but seeing the feeds of my “friends”? BLECHH!!

Anyways, I’ll keep blogging as I have 2-3 followers!