Christmas time is here. And the times they are changing.

I know it may be a song mash up, but for me it is definitely true. Christmas eve is my last day at my current employer, then after a Christmas break I start my new job 5 January. It's been a long time since I've looked forward to starting a new position, it's usually a case of, "Who am I fooling? I can't actually do this." Not this time, I'm looking forward to new challenges.

I'm always trying to learn new technologies and techniques, but the programming world is just growing far to quickly. And that's part of the fun.

The Scout Troop is really growing. There are currently 9 members (and I think there are 2 more coming up from Cubs in January) and 1 new Assistant Leader. Now we just need to plan out next term.....

May already

Has it been a month? Time flies when you're having fun(?). A lot has happen since last time.

We have two cats now, Whiskey and Vino, and they settled in almost immediately. I've grown up with cats. It's been close to 10 years since Ginger passed on and I'm glad to have cats driving me crazy again.

The Scout troop is growing. When I first took over there were only 4 Scouts and the parents of 3 of those were leaders of the group's Beavers or Cubs. We are now up to 7, with at least one more joining in a couple of weeks (when the family get back from holidays). Combine that with 3 more coming up from Cubs in September and 5th Douglas is going to have a healthy Scout Troop.

Tomorrow we are taking part in Jamboree on the Trail. JOTT is an annual day for the World Scout Movement to hike together. The Scouts in the Isle of Man are going from Douglas to Peel (if you know the island), a total of 10.5 miles. The average age of the troop is 11 (only one is older at 14) and this will be the farthest hike any of them have done (the Cubs are doing 5 miles), so this may get interesting;
    "Can we stop for a rest?
    "We just started 15 minutes ago."

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I must be a glutton for punishment. I'm thinking about starting another blog (possibly hosted on a personal domain) focused on programming and development. Info when available. I can sleep on the weekend, just not this weekend. I'm busy.

April is already a busy month

April is less than a week old and already it's been a busy month.

Tuesday evening (1st April) I was at an evening of Scout Leader training. The modules covered the Scouting fundamentals and working with other adults. It was a great night and actually learned things, which is always important when designing a training course I understand.

Tonight the family is making a visit to Pets at Home (there are other pet supply stores....) to get the things we need for tomorrow. Last Saturday we visited the Ard Jerkyll, which is home of the Manx Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) and applied to adopt 2 cats, Whisky and Vino. Tomorrow they come home.

Sunday I'm in training again, First Aid and I've already have 5 things booked over the next two weeks, before Scouts start up again after the Easter break (2 weeks).

It's OK, I have lots of time to rest when I retire....one day.

Another New Start

I'm re-discovering this blog tonight.

While glancing over past entries I've realised that I've restarted this blog far too many times. I have decided that I need to make a more purposeful effort to do it right this time and to do it regularly. That said there has not been a HUGE number of changes in my life since my last entry.

Not to suggest that nothing has happened, but...

• I'm in the same job I was to start in my last entry
• I still run The Scout Association - Isle of Man website at manxscouts.com

What has changed is:

• I've gone from just doing the website, but am now the Media Development Manager for TSA - IOM
• I am now the Scout Leader for 5th Douglas. The Troop was with out an SL recently and offered to take over as SL.

I was an Assistant Leader back in Canada for Cubs and then Scouts, but when I moved to the Isle of Man almost 20 years ago I didn't get involved with Scouting here. After a few weeks as SL I regret waiting so long. So I'm trying to complete my Leader training (to earn my Wood Badge, for those who know what I mean). Things are completely different when I was a Scout ASL back in Canada, so it's all new to me. I'll know what I'm doing soon enough (I hope....).

I'll make an effort to write here 2 or 3 times a week. Fingers crossed.

New Beginnings

Tomorrow I start my new job (“Yea for me”). It’s a company I was already familiar to me, which is also a new experience. I’m both excited and nervous; excited about new challenges, but nervous about new challenges (I hope that clarifies it). I’m hope to blog about the new job as it progresses.

At the same time as starting a new job I’ve also taken on a new project. The website of the Isle of Man Scout Association is currently down and without a webmaster. My son is in the 5th Douglas Scouts and I volunteered to take over the site (seemed like a good idea at the time <smile>. It looks like I’m not going to be in it alone though, there’s another volunteer. More details as the site is developed. 

“The time has come,” the walrus said

In just 15 minutes I off to the train station to start the journey to the Isle of Man. Furniture is already there, wife’s there, sons’ are there. I’m the only one left.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

More from the IOM.

Moving day is nigh

Not just nigh, the removal guys are working around me. Family is already en route to the Isle of Man and I'm here watching them load the van. I finish work Friday afternoon and am on the boat Friday night. It's all go, go, go.

Post more tonight on how it went when I'm home alone (not Home Alone as in the movie of course...).

Things are progressing…I think

I can’t believe that I’m moving to the Isle of Man in 2 months…need to start packing. I’ve given notice at work (my replacement started today) and to the landlord, so I guess it’s too late to change our mind now.

After going thru Internet withdrawal for 4 months I’ve been spend far too much time on the computer, but that’s par for the course for me (I can read the report card now “Must try harder”). I’ve spent a little time on the format for the blog (still needs work I think, but needs entries more).

Just a quick note today, post soon (promise).

“So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you.”

As said by Willy Wonka.

Firstly, I have broadband (finally). It’s taken a while, but I’m back up and running.

Unfortunately it’s just in time for me to say, “I’m moving at the end of the summer.” This is the bigger move though, back to the Isle of Man. Family reasons has convinced us that it’s time we moved back to the IOM and the end of August is the best time for us. This means packing (again) and deciding what is worth taking with us (and thus paying to have it moved) and what I should say “I haven’t unpacked this box in 5 years, do I really need to move it again?” (you know the drill).

This means that I don’t think I’m going to hit all my gaming goals this year, but my immediate priorities have changed.

If it's not one thing it's another

Three months after moving into my new house and I'm still without an internet connection. I've been told that it should be up in the next two weeks. However as it stands when my broadband is set up I still won't be able to connect with my computer; it crashed big time 2 days ago.

My pc has a restore partition (i.e. no disks, it just restores to the original factory settings). When my wife was playing solitaire on Thusday it apparently crashed and booted the restore (this is what I can decifer from a non-computer person description). The default restore keeps the userfiles, but restores the rest. the computer tries to reboot, but fails and reboots again; over and over. I'll try a complete restore (basically formatting the work partition) and see if that fixes it. If not I don't know when I'll be able to afford to either fix or replace.....

If it's not one thing it's the other........

Moved In 2 – The Saga Continues

Officially I’ve moved in. Unfortunately still no broadband, that means keeping this updated has been difficult. However most of the unpacking, putting up, putting together, etc. is done.

I’ve been able to do some figure painting just not as much as I would have liked to. I’ve finished some Lord of the Ring units (Harad warriors and the Betrayer for example – pictures to come), but then tragedy; my glasses broke. They weren’t the greatest prescription and planned to order a new pair this week. Now I’m forced to wear an old pair, which is fine for general day-to-day, but horrible for detail work like painting, and my new pair won’t be here for 2 weeks. Then I’ll be painting ever night (yea, right!).

The big pain of all this is that now I’m moved in…watch this space. Will there be a Moved In 3?

I Hate Moving

You sometimes forget how one phone call can change everything. In my case it was three phone calls and four emails.

Call 1: Landlord says that they are moving back to their house. We have to move in two months.
Email 1: Official notice in writing.
Email 2: Please call me, you may not need to move.
Call 2: They may not be moving back, can I give them 4 days to finalise what they are doing.
Email 3: You don’t have to move after all.
Email 4: We are going to be moving back in the end and you will need to move out.
Call 2: Same info (in case I hadn’t seen the email).

So now begins the job of packing, finding a new place to live and moving house. I hate moving. I’ve been here 18 months and I’m still not even unpacked yet (I’m sure it’s years before everything is actually unpacked).

I had even gotten some figure painting done in the past couple of weeks to. I guess that’s on hold for a while.

2010 Gaming Goals (Final?)

Ok, I’ve given the resolutions from my last post a lot of thought (that’s a lie I haven’t thought about it much, but I want to finalise them). I’ve decided there more goals than resolutions, that’s the first tweak. I’ve also added a couple of more goals for next year. I won’t really comment on these if the goal hasn’t changed from my last post. These are in no particular order.

1. Expand my dwarf army to a complete, stand alone, army of 2000 points.
2. Finish painting the Lord of the Rings miniatures I already have before getting any new ones.
3. Build a playable Harad army (LotR), including a War Mumak. This is after goal #2.
4. Play
   It’s nice having completed miniatures, but the whole point is to play.
5. Complete at least one non-Games Workshop miniature.
   I’m starting to enjoy painting for the end result and I’ve started to discover some great figures out there.
6. Build at least one complete set of scenery.
7. Create a display miniature
   Not for playing but on a scene base.
8. Really work to learn to paint better.
   My painting skill is still very basic. I depend too much (IMHO) on colour guides in the source books, White Dwarf or on line. I need to understand what I want and how to achieve it more.

All in all I think I’m trying to be realistic while still trying to have a productive year. Fingers crossed.

2010 Gaming Resolutions

Just stumbled across this blog post where John reviews his 2009 gaming resolutions and he judges how successful he was (in his case a wide mix of epic successes and failures). It got me to thinking of what I want to get out of my gaming in 2010. What projects do I want to start, finish or avoid? So here is my first stab a a set of gaming resolutions for 2010. This is the first time I’ve tried something like this, so I may just crash & burn. I’m unashamedly inspired by John’s resolutions from last year. These are in no particular order (and may change be tweaked over the next 2 weeks).

1. Expand my dwarf army to a complete, stand alone army.
   When I originally played Warhammer (about 5-6 years ago) I collected a Dwarf/Kislev army. I loved some of the Kislev miniatures, so built my army based on that. This time around (got pulled back in <grin> in May this year) I’ve been collecting/painting Lord of the Rings. I don’t have a full Dwarf army and the Kislev figures aren’t ‘current’ so wasn’t in a position to enter a local tourney.
2. Finish painting the LotR figures I already have.
   I have a pile of Harad warriors, Rowan warriors, hobbits & Gandalf the White base coated ready for painting. I hate constantly seeing black or white figures.
3. Build a playable Harad army, including a War Mumak.
   My son got a set of Harad raiders to initially learn to paint, ruined most of them and then lost interest (he’s only 9, so this still time to corrupt educate him). I love the look of the Harad and just got to have a Mumak.
4. Play
   It’s fun painting, but got to start playing again and show off my completed figures.
5. Complete at least one non-GW miniature
   I’ve started watching the videos put out by Beasts of War  on YouTube. One of their regular features is On the Table where they look at some of the new miniatures being released. Seeing some of the non Games Workshop stuff out there I really want to get my hands (my brushes)  on some of them.
6. Build at least one full set of scenery
   I love to play or watch a game with a full set of scenery (i.e. not just random hills, trees or buildings, but a set of scenery that goes together to set a scene or mood). I have lots of ideas, just actually haven’t built even one piece yet.

At a glance, this looks like a good initial stab. I’ll look at it more next week I think. Don’t want to go overboard, but don’t want it to be too easy either.

No time to paint

The week before last I was on holidays; just from work, we didn’t actually go anywhere. My plan was to finish painting a set of goblin figures. I enjoy painting Games Workshop figures. Primarily fantasy, but my son’s gotten me into Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40K (sci-fi). Even when off, I still didn’t get much accomplished.

Here are a couple of my finished figures…

I’m not a great painter, don’t spend enough time practicing. I think one of my challenges is my eyes. At 47 yrs my eyes aren’t great, I wear glasses and am in desperate need of new ones. These means I strain to do detail work. I often joke that I’ve come to this hobby late in life, but I will get better.

I’m really starting to get excited about different techniques and non-Games Workshop figures and tools, so watch this space as they say. I will finish my Mines of Moria goblins and I will get better.

Oh yea, I also plan to play more; which is the whole idea of painting the figures…:-) I’ll be sharing some photos and articles on the hobby in my Google Reader (see the sidebar).

Ready for another week of leisure

I’m home from work over the next week, but with the kids still in school and with Christmas shopping (and the cost to go with it) still to be done I’m basically staying home.  A chance to catch up on some TV (have lots recorded) and to get some figures painted. Will I get to do this or will I put it off until “tomorrow”? I’ll keep you posted. 

Kevin

Catch the Wave

I received my invite to Google Wave this week. When Google first previewed Wave earlier this year I was excited, it seemed it was something new and different. Now that I have it a question has come up; If I don’t know anyone on it yet, what can I do? It’ll just be a matter of learning the power of the technology, it’s new and needs to find it’s feet.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still excited to explore it and find uses for it. Time, that’s all it needs (IMHO).

Six Months......?

It's amazing sometimes, you start to get momentum then....nothing. I've been guilty of that, I was getting into a real momentum of posting to this blog in April then nothing since (how not to attract & keep readers). Twitter and Google Reader's shared items are constantly being update, but no actual entries.

I'm going to try and pick up a new run talking about computers, tv, warhammer and what ever takes my fancy at the time. That's 'try', not 'promise'; I'm just a busy little beaver.

10 of My Favourite Celebrity Glamour Photos

Most celebrity photos on the web are either publicity shots from films or candid paparazzi photos (many of questionable quality or decency). However it seems to be more common for some of, IMO, great looking actresses are doing sexier photos that are more glamour or FHM. In a past life I was a photographer and was attracted to portraits or people photography. As such I still subscribe to allot of photography RSS feeds. Here are some of my favourites that I've shared in my Google Reader in recent months.

1. Christina Ricci

Christina started as a child actress in films like Airplane. I'll never forget her answer to the question on how she liked her coffee.

Young Boy: Cream?
Little Girl (played by Ricci): No, thank you, I take it black, like my men.

She's grown into a beautiful woman since those early days

2. Winona Ryder

Winona Ryder made her mark in films like Beetle Juice, Heathers and Great Balls of Fire. She had a very rough period personally for a few years, but is back on track these days and can be seen in the new Star Trek film.

3. Kirsten Dunst

I first saw Kirsten as Claudia in Interview With a Vampire. Now she's best known, at least by me, as Mary Jane Watson in the Spiderman films 1, 2 3 & 4 (2011).

4. Emma Watson

Hermoine Granger from the Harry Potter films. In the first film she was portrayed as bossy and a know-it-all. Now, I think the director is going to have to work if he wants to hide that she is now a beautiful woman and not a 15 year old school girl.

5. Emma Burton

"Baby Spice" in my mind was the most talented and prettiest member of The Spice Girls.

6. Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore has always seem comfortable doing glamour work. I think the first shoot she did was for Playboy. When she was on the David Letterman Show a couple of years after the magazine appeared, she said Steven Spielberg had sent her a customised edition of the magazine. He had asked his art department to dress her in all of her photos. Drew got her start in Spielberg's E.T. when she was 7 and obviously couldn't face that she was all grown up :-).

7. Katie Holmes

Whether you think of her from Dawson's Creek or as Mrs. Tom Cruise. She has a sophisticated beauty that is rare today.

8. Natalie Portman

Natalie first came to our attention at 13 as Mathilda in Léon (aka Leon: The Professional), but then shot to fame in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

9. Sarah Michelle Geller

Best know as Buffy The Vampire Slayer. She also made a great Daphne in the Scooby-Doo films.

10. Marilyn Monroe

How can you talk about celebrity glamour and not mention Marilyn. What more can you say.

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There are many more photos of these beautiful and sexy actresses. I've just tried to give you a taste of what can be found. Keep a watch on my shared items and FriendFeed (both on the right) to see what new photos I've found.

Until next time TTFN,

Kevin

FBI Elevator Pitch

The other week I stumbled across ProBlogger, a blog on blogging. At the begining of the month (April) Darren started a series of entries 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. The aim is to give you a new task each day to improve your blog. Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog is the first task, so here it is.

Elevator Pitch for FBI

FBI for me is For Brew Information, like FYI but just for me. Whether it's interesting, thought provoking, funny or just a pleasure it may make it on FBI. As an IT Manager, programmer, IT geek, photographer and gamer (just to name a few) my posts are an ecletic mix at the very least. It's not without its focus, but that focus is on the thought of the moment, it may change tomorrow. FBI is meant to be a dialog, whether it's on the blog, via Twitter or FriendFeed FBI is everywhere. Do you surf the internet for the moment? Then maybe you to should join FBI.

What do you think?

TTFN
Kevin