19 November 2011

Nerd Things...

So, I'm a gamer, both tabletop (D&D) and electronic. I read comics, and watch sci-fi and fantasty movies. I read Dean Koontz more than anybody else, and I love me some Piers Anthony.

What I'd really love to do, is LARP. I can't express how much fun I think that'd be. Now, I'm not talking going full on retarded with it (though I probably would). I just wanna run around with a sword (a safe sword, obviously) and smash stuff, pretty much. I think it'd be a freakin' blast. I thought about joining the SCA (which, I know, isn't LARPing), but every time I really get into the idea, I'm either strapped for time or cash, and can't make it work. I've thought about joining the local (sort of) N.E.R.O. chapter, but they're crazy expensive, and not even remotely on my side of town.

I bought my best friend a pair of Kendo Shinai (bamboo swords) with the intent that we'd play with them all the time, but they've only managed to sit in his bedroom since. Dang it...

Anyway. I think LARPing would be awesome.

18 November 2011

Weird Army Tales...

So, when I was in Basic Combat Training for the Army, one of the guys in my bay (barracks) said something about someone he knew.

"Oh, yeah, when my buddy was in Basic, he and his platoonmates found all sorts of contraband in the ceiling tiles of their bay. Porn, smokes, all kinds of stuff."

Naturally, being the horny, nicotine deprived young men that we were, we immediately began checking the ceiling tiles above our bunks. I was on the top bunk, and so had easiest access to my set of beds' ceiling tiles. I carefully removed one of the white acoustic tiles, and found myself staring at a whole village.

Surrounding the tile I'd taken down on all sides, was a small community of rock people. The smallest was about the size of a quarter, and the largest was maybe the size of a big strawberry, but each and every one had a little face drawn on it. Some angry, some happy, some sad. Some with angry eyes and maniacal smiles. Some of them had little tiny props, like guns made out of twigs, or axes made from twigs and little chips of stone.

With each face, drawn in permanent marker, was a name. Jackson, '98. Kindred, '01. Hoss, '97.

Every man that had slept in my bed had left his own little rock person. There must've been 50-100 of them. At first, I found it a little creepy. There was this tiny village of warriors ready to cook my head for invading their home. After a while, though, I found it comforting. I had my own little personal Army looking over me while I slept.

One of the last things I did before I left the barracks, was place "Kennedy, '02" in his spot above the bed. He's watching over some other soldier now, and hope that he brings the same comfort for that soldier as his little rocky tribe did for me.

16 November 2011

Nerf Proton

So here are the pictures I promised earlier tonight. First is obviously the stock, unsanded, unpainted Nerf Proton. 

Second, we have a shot of the grip. It's hard to see in this picture (because of early morning sunlight and such), but the rear grip is dark green with silver weathering, and the side grip is light green. The front of the grip is actually black with silver weathering, but it seems very green here.

  Front ish view. Not much to say.
This is the reverse side of the gun, obviously. Silvered "energy cartridge" with a green base, for fancyness.





Comparison shots with my Nerf Maverick.

Blog categories...

Dear Blogger,

So I just went to the top of my page, and clicked "Next Blog" for like half an hour. Apparently I'm categorized in the "Family Blog" and "Religion Blog" sections, because that's all I found.

Seriously?

Who's in charge of this categorization? He/she/it should be fired for sleeping and/or looking at porn (because that's all I can think of that would result in such a lack of attention that the resulting random placement exists) on the job.

Confusedly Yours,

Joe


Casting the Marvel Universe...


So, I do this thing where I cast actors in roles that I write so that I can keep their "voice" clear in my head. Sometimes the actors change over time, or my choices for the roles change. I just redid my "Marvel" cast, and figured I'd share. This is my cast as it stands at this very moment. 

X-Men
Bishop, Lucas- Bishop (Tyreese Gibson)
Braddock, Elizabeth "Betsy"- Psylocke (Rhona Mitra)
Darkholme, Anna Marie- Rogue (Emmy Rossum)
Drake, Robert "Bobby"- Iceman (Shia LeBeouf)
Grey, Jean- Phoenix (Rachel Weiss)
Guthrie, Samuel Zachary- Cannonball (Ryan Kwanten)
Howlett, James "Logan"- Wolverine (Hugh Jackman)
LeBeau, Remy- Gambit (Matt Bomer)
Lee, Jubilation- Jubilee (Kristen Kreuk)
McCoy, Henry Phillip "Hank"- Beast (CGI/Robin Williams)
Munroe, Ororro- Storm (Rosario Dawson)
Pryde, Katherine "Kitty"- Shadowcat (Mila Kunis)
Rasputin, Piotr Nikolaievitch- Colossus (Owain Yeoman
)

Summers, Scott- Cyclops (Jeffrey Donovan)
Summers, Rachel- Marvel Girl (Rachel Nichols)
Wagner, Kurt- Nightcrawler (CGI/Andy Serkis)
Worthington III, Warren- Angel (Ryan Gosling)


Generation X
Frost, Emma- White Queen (Kate Bosworth)
Cassiday, Sean- Banshee (Kevin McKidd)
Espinosa, Angelo- Skin (Diego Luna)
Guthrie, Paige- Husk (Hayden Panettiere)
Starsmore, Jono- Chamber (Orlando Bloom)
St. Croix, Monet- M (Olga Kurylenko)
Thomas, Everett- Synch (Lee Thompson Young)

New Mutants
Ashida, Noriko "Nori"- Surge (Zhang Zhi Yi)
Borkowski, Victor- Anole (Logan Lerman)
Foley, Joshua "Josh"- Elixir (Aaron Ashmore)
Guthrie, Joshua "Jay"- Icarus (Emile Hirsch)
Keller, Julian- Hellion (Joseph Gordon Levitt)
Kincaid, Cessily- Mercury (Emmy Rossum)
Qadir, Sooraya- Dust (Summer Bishil)
Kinney, Laura- X-23 (Eliza Dushku)
Vaccarro, Santo- Rockslide (CGI/Keith David)

X-Force
Proudstar, James- Warpath ()
Sinclair, Rahne- Wolfsbane (Saoirse Ronan)
Smith, Tabitha- Boom Boom (Elisha Cuthbert)
Summers, Nathaniel Christopher- Cable (Ron Pearlman)
Thurman, Neena- Domino (Selma Blair)

X-Factor
Carosella, Guido- Strong Guy (CGI/Kevin Michael Richardson)
Dane, Lorna- Polaris (Chyler Leigh)
Maddrox, Jamie- Multiple Man (Eric Dane)
Maximoff, Pietro- Quicksilver (Crispin Glover)
Summers, Alex- Havok (Paul Walker)

Avengers
Banner, Robert Bruce- The Hulk (Edward Norton/CGI/Lou Ferrigno)
Barton, Clint- Hawkeye (Sean William Scott)
Blake, Donald- Thor (Liam Hemsworth)
Drew, Jessica- Spider Woman (Missy Peregrym)
Maximoff, Wanda- Scarlet Witch (Carla Gugino)
Pym, Henry "Hank"- Giant Man (Patrick Dempsey)
Rogers, Steve- Captain America (Chris Evans)
Romanov, Natasha- Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)
Stark, Anthony Edward "Tony"- Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr)
Van Dyne, Janet- Wasp (Katie Holmes)
Walters, Jennifer Susan- She Hulk (Jessica Biel)
Williams, Simon- Wonder Man (Brad Pitt)
Wilson, Sam- Falcon (Djimon Hounsou)

Fantastic Four
Grimm, Benjamin Jacob "Ben"- The Thing (Michael Chiklis)
Richards, Reed- Mr. Fantastic (Matthew gray gubler)
Storm, Johnathan "Johnny"- The Human Torch (Chris Evans)
Storm, Susan "Sue"- The Invisible Woman (Kristen Bell)

Brotherhood of Mutants
Allerdyce, St. John- Pyro (Ethan Embry)
Creed, Victor- Sabretooth (Liev Schriber)
Darkholme, Raven- Mystique (Olivia Wilde)
Dukes, Frederick J.- The Blob (CGI/Ron Lester)
Lensherr, Erik Magnus- Magneto (Sean Bean)
Petrakis, Dominikos Ioannis "Dominic"- Avalance (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
Toynbee, Mortimer- Toad (Doug Jones)

Miscelaneous
Blaire, Allison, Dazzler (Avril Lavigne)
Blaze, John "Johnny"- Ghost Rider (Colin Ferguson)
Cage, Luke- Power Man (Tyrese Gibson)
Castle, Frank- The Punisher (Peter Sarsgaard)
Danvers, Carol- Ms. Marvel (Jenny McCarthy)
Hardy, Felicia- Black Cat (Jolene Blalock)
Murdock, Matthew- Daredevil (Timothy Olyphant)
Rand, Daniel "Danny"- Iron Fist (Christopher Masterson)
Strange, Stephen- Dr. Strange (Adrien Brody)
Von Doom, Victor- Doom (Jonathan Frakes)

Workin' the night shift...

So, I'm doing the thing the title of this post says. It's been forever since I've been on nights, and so it's a little weird. Had to think hard to remember which doors get unlocked in the mornings, and the pattern in which they have to be unlocked. Only had one call so far tonight, but I had to guess at how the new overnight intercom system works. Fairly simply, it turns out. Now, I've got two hours left to go, and I'm feelin' okay.

I slept well Monday night, and then had a three hour nap this afternoon, and haven't had the sleepy monster attack me yet. I figure I'll get home today, have some breakfast (probably leftover lasagna), and watch TV until I get sleepy.

Painted a new Nerf gun tonight, and got some writing done. I'll see about posting pics of the gun later today. I'd do it now, but I'm missing my stupid cord. *shrugs* Hope yall have/had a great night/day.

14 November 2011

Gone for a few...

Whoops! Sorry about that. I fell off the intertubes for a few days. Time for a recap?

Friday night I played Skyrim from about 2100 hours to 0545 hours Saturday morning. That game is...I don't even have the words to tell you how awesome that game is. It's like Oblivion, plus Bioshock, plus everything awesome in this world, wrapped up in dragons, and set down lovingly in a snowy world that's as pretty as anything I've ever seen in real life.

Saturday I worked from 0700 to 1900. Same for Sunday. Neither day was particularly busy, but we had weird problems with some of our doors and stuff. *shrugs*

Today, I'm at work, almost done. Two more hours to go, and then I'm off for three days. So freakin' ready it's not even funny. Next Sunday I've got a trip to the local (sorta) RenFest, so that'll be epic, and then I work Monday, and will be off for ten days for Thanksgiving. Dallas, here I come...

And I see that I do actually have people who read my blog from time to time, so I'd like to invite (in case I haven't already) yall to comment or question me in the comments down below. I'll answer what I can, and try to answer what I can't. Or just say "Hi". Blogging without an audience is okay, but I kinda feel like I'm talking to a room full of cameras.......

11 November 2011

Stress and Stress Relief...

No, you dirty internet perverts, not that kind of stress relief.

So, I watched Grey's Anatomy last week (yes, I watch Grey's. I'm addicted.). Most nights, I watch, and I'm interested, but not overly so. Last week's episode tore me a new heart hole, though.

I cry. I'm a cry-y kinda guy, sometimes. Grey's gets me the most of anything I watch, but sometimes other shows too. Mostly Grey's, though. Sometimes I watch and get a little misty eyed, and sometimes I watch and cry my eyes out.

**********SPOILERS AHEAD**********

When Dr. Bailey was talking about kids, and how infuriating they can be, and how George was always her favorite, I cried. I hadn't cried in a while, and so it was an okay cry. Not great, but not terrible. Just okay.

Then, at the end of last week's (11-3-11) when Henry (Teddy's husband, played by Scott Foley) turned around from the sink, his hand over his mouth, the look of fear in his eyes absolutely destroyed me. I started sobbing uncontrollably (not the manliest thing to do in front of your girlfriend).

I don't think I've ever seen fear portrayed so intensely before. I hadn't really had any sort of emotional connection with the character before, but in that moment, I was terrified. He was so scared that I was in fear for my own life.

Now, because of work and school stuff, I didn't get to watch last night's episode (11-10-11), but I'm going to go home and watch it after I get off work today. Thankfully, my girl won't be home, and I can just go ahead and cry my little eyes out by my lonesome.

Sometimes, ya just need to cry and let it all out. I think today might be that day. When I cried over last week's episode, it was kinda restrained (even the sobbing), because my girl was there. She tried to make it all better, and she did, but I kinda felt cheated out of a good long cry, just a little bit.

And so, with plans for bro time with Skyrim and Star Wars: The Old Republic all night tonight, I have a limited window in which to do my crying. I need this release. I need to get my tears out and into the world, because it's been a long time since I just cried myself out.

I hope Grey's does the trick and I don't have to go scouring the internet for tales of sad dogs while listening to Sarah McLachlan's "In The Arms Of The Angels".

Because if that doesn't make you cry, nothing will.

06 November 2011

So Freakin' Busy!

So, yeah. I've been at work for two hours now, and I've made six trips between the hospitals. On an average day, I might make two. Jeez. This place is crazy today.

Also, if your "Air Ambulance" (Life Flight Helicopter) forgets a piece of equipment (a pump the size of a VHS tape), and your home base is less than two miles from the hospital, would you fly to the hospital to retrieve it? Or maybe send one of the ground crew to get it in a vehicle? Yeah. They totally flew in to get this pump. Crazies.

05 November 2011

Vidja games...

So, I consider myself a casual gamer. I played on the original Playstation (because that's the first game console I was allowed to have). Metal Gear Solid, Coolboarders 2, Rival Schools, the original Spiderman games and such. From there I moved on to the X-Box (not a big Halo fan), and then the X-Box 360 (not crazy about Gears). I didn't play a lot of traditional RPGs (Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Zelda games), but I did play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Oh...My...God, did I play that game. Played it when it first came out, and then traded it in. Bought it again a few months later, and traded it in again after probably 6 months with it. Bought it a third time, and then sold it when I moved out (needed the cash). Got another 360, and I bought the game before I got the Red Ring Of Death. Kept the game, and borrowed a friend's 360 for several months.

Then, the best news ever (in gaming) came out. Bethesda Softworks is making another Elder Scrolls game.

It's coming out on 11-11-11.

Now, I want you do me a favor. Just indulge me for a moment.

Close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a dark cave. Shadows flicker just outside the light of your campfire, and dark things skitter across the stony floor. The wind howls into the cave from outside, bringing a chill to your bones as the snowy air courses around you, and on the breeze, you hear a word whispered, so soft you can barely hear it.

"Sssssskyrim...."

Does that not fill you with the most AWESOME kind of dread? No? Well then you have no soul and are dead inside.

I'm so freakin' excited for this game. I've intentionally stayed away from gameplay vids, spoilers, and everything other than "pretty pretty pictures" (screenshots) from the game, so that I can get the full on experience next Friday night. My best friend and I are going to take over his living room, using both big screen TV's in his house, and just Skyrim it up all night. I'm gonna get off work Friday, go home and try to sleep, and then hit his house after he's off work, so that we can Skyrim ourselves into Oblivion (see what I did there?) until the wee hours of the morning when we have to go to work.

Effin' lame.

I'm gonna try to spend as much time at his place as I can, so that I can game it up until my nerd boner explodes in a sticky mess of gaming ecstasy.

At least, that's the plan.

EDIT: So I went to his place and played some DC Universe Online last night. Fuckin' Epic. Best free game ever.

04 November 2011

Security....

I HATE SECURITY!!!!!

Okay, that's not entirely true. I love my job. I really enjoy working in the Security field. Especially Hospital Security. It's fun and challenging and sometimes exciting.

What I hate, is how we're dealt with.

Administration is, for all intents and purposes, fucking retarded.

Let me elaborate.

Part of working Security is making your presence (or the presence of the Security Department) felt by not only the staff, but also by the public and, in the case of Hospital Security, patients. The best way to do this is to monitor high traffic areas (hang out at the Main Entrance to a building, for instance). This is something that any decent Security minded person will tell you. Your mere presence acts as a deterrent for a lot of problems.

Also, you can give directions, help people in and out of cars, answer questions...general customer service kinds of stuff.

Now, the other day, I was approached by the hospital's Chief Operating Officer (C.O.O.) while hanging out near the valet stand (right outside the Main Entrance). We'd just started construction (or rather, pre-construction destruction of the hospital's main driveway), and I was explaining to the Valets how things were going to change, based on the proposed plans for parking and construction, and Security issues and such, since none of them are privy to any of that information, but it affects them greatly.

Normally, at that time of day, there would be two Valets at the Valet stand, but on this particular day, one of the Valets from across the street (at the Heart Tower of our Medical Center) had come over, and was talking to her Main Hospital counterparts. The C.O.O. came outside and looked at the freshly started construction, and then walked up to me, and we had the following conversation.

Him: "What's going on? Is there a problem up here?"

Me: "No. I just came up to check on the construction, and hang out up here at the Main Entrance. Ya know, make my presence known, that kinda thing."

Him: "Well, they've got three men (one of whom was not a man) up here. I don't think they need you hanging out here."

Me: "Okay. Fair enough."

So, I took off, and did another patrol of the hospital's floors (which I'd done less than 15 minutes prior), and returned to the Security Office. Now, I've been hanging out with the Valets like that for months (right outside the glass wall of his office, and there hasn't been any problems. I've answered questions, given directions, looked up directions, escorted people where they need to go, helped out with Valet duties when they get busy, all while handling my normal Security Officer duties. I still answer the Security Mobile, which is where all the calls to the Security Department go to, and my Security duties always (and have always) take precedence.

Why the hell should I hide in my office (because I've already been told I spend too much time in the lobbies, monitoring traffic, too much time in the parking lots, monitoring traffic, too much time in the ER, monitoring the craziness that goes on there) when Security should be SEEN?!

Now, this C.O.O. and I have had run ins in the past. Not in person, mind you, but run ins nonetheless. I have tattoos up and down both of my arms. My left arm has three visible (in my uniform) tattoos, one of a pair of stone dragons, one of some stone tribal, and one of a tree. My right arm has six visible tattoos. The Superman S-Shield, the Bat-Symbol, Captain America's Shield, Thor's Hammer, a Punisher Skull band around my wrist, and a Sh'iar Death Mark (it's a comic book thing).

I worked night shift for eight months when I first hired on, and nobody ever had any problems with my tattoos. Not doctors, not nurses, not patients, not visitors, not coworkers. Nobody. Then I switched to day shift.

The C.E.O. doesn't mind my tattoos. My boss, and my boss' boss doesn't have a problem with them. There are people with larger tattoos than mine, with more tattoos than I have, and with clearly NSFW tattoos, and they get to leave them uncovered.

The way the hospital's dress code policy is written is very vague. "Tattoos that may be offensive, or cover too much area should be covered. The final decision is left up to the employee's manager." Now, what constitutes too much area is left up to my direct supervisor. Simple enough, but when his boss' boss' boss' boss says "You need to write him (me) up for having exposed tattoos." there's not much my boss can do. I get that.

What gets me is the fact that he has (on multiple occasions) stared me in the face, shook my hand, and spoken to me in a pleasant manner, and then waited a week before ordering my immediate manager to write me up for having exposed tattoos that "make him look like a thug".

Now, I get the Punisher Skull being offensive, especially in a hospital. It's a skull, which isn't something you wanna see in a place where people come to get healthy I get that. I'd even understand the Sh'iar Death Mark, if EVERYONE in the world was a super comic book nerd. This is the tattoo, and it's from a relatively normal issue (nothing fancy about it) of Uncanny X-Men (issue 480 something, I think), but not many people know what it means. (See below)

So yeah. That's the tattoo, and he doesn't even have a problem with that one. It's the Superman and Batman symbols that apparently trip his retard trigger. Really? Seriously? Superman and Batman make me look like a thug, but skulls and "death marks" don't? What the fuck, man?

Ugh. I guess it just boils down to the fact that he can't stand me for some reason.

Fucker...

I'm so glad I'll be out of there in a year.

On a lighter note, I passed the entry exam for the local college's Police Academy. With any luck, in December of 2012, I'll have my TCLEOSE certification and I can go to work out here in this city and not be under his retarded ass thumb.

02 November 2011

Painting stuff....

KABOOM!!!

Okay, so yeah, I'm a giant nerd, who paints Nerf guns. This initially started as a project over a year ago, where I just spraypainted the gun black, and then took silver model paint and made it look all fucked up.

Yesterday I started over with acrylic paint. Base layer of black, with silver accents at first, but then I decided to go a bit further, and give it some color.

Obviously these pictures aren't the best, but they're what I've got, so...

Several coats of black on silver on black on silver and I got the slide looking like I wanted. That button just in front and above the trigger took a ton of work to get the silver/green/black mixture the way I wanted it.


This is the opposite side of the gun, obviously. Those green lines were rather simple to do, since I just painted a sloppy green line, and then hit the edges with black. 

The revolving barrel portion was tough. I did a solid black coat, then hit it up with silver. Obviously there were mistakes, like the long silver streaks. 

 The front portion of the gun is silver with black streaks. I figured I'd go for a silvered metal look, with a grimy coat of black here and there. The opposite from the back end of blackened (or blued) steel, worn down with use.
 Here I silvered the, uh, whatever you call the projection above the grip. I also silvered the edges of the grip, and all the screws (even the fake ones).

 So, yeah. That's what I did over the last two days. If you wanna see how it's supposed to be done, check out http://johnsonarms.wordpress.com for the real deal.

01 November 2011

Holidays...

So last night was Halloween. Went and handed out candy to the Trick-or-Treaters at the in-laws' place. Had a decent time, even though nobody felt like enforcing my "If your costume can be labeled 'Slutty (your costume here)', then you get no candy." rule. Dang...

Next comes Thanksgiving. We'll do either breakfast on Thanksgiving Day, or a meal some time the day before with my dad. Then comes Sweetheart's Dad's family for lunch on Thanksgiving Day. Then, after that, we'll head to Dallas for the weekend. Dinner up there Thursday, then chillin' the whole weekend, probably watching football outside by the OUTDOOR FIREPLACE! It's so nice up there.

I'm a little tempted to kidnap their house and just bring it back to Houston with me.