A lackluster of updates lately

Well, I've been trying to get things off the ground and running. We'll have to see how things perform, but all in all, I'm facing burnout from the game if I keep the tempo up. I am gunning to get everything painted by the end of the year, so I can roll into Mk II fresh. The main issue though is looking at the Tier game play for the Merc Contracts. The smoke-nerf to Trenchers reduces their role somewhat, but I think I can make a case to use them still. Just like the Idrians.

Anyway, I have to review my list choices for Mk II and come out with a solid list. I'll have two lists - 35 & 50 points built up. eMagnus only though.

In retrospect, it may have been a bad idea to build a list then move it over to MkII due to several rule changes in the way models work. Everyone experienced it, but it's harder for me to push models that were viable vs models that are no longer viable. I may have to just suck it up and sink this one in as a loss and move on to the next option (maybe a pMagnus, but I think I'm done with a Magnus Agenda for now). It also hurts that I'm exploring my parent faction (Cryx) some more and jumping around with other faction ideas.

But instead of being a downer as I just mentioned, I'm going to hold my head up high and carry through. I want to be done so I can help host a tournament during Water Awareness Week (3rd week in March usually).

As for the future, I can't say I can continue right away. I have an idea for an army that I'd like to run and an issue to go with it. But I'm getting married mid next year and possibly moving to an entirely different state to boot. So I may not announce anything for a rather long time unfortunately.

In other news, while I wasn't able to make it to our local Breast Cancer Brawl, I was fortunate enough to manage to drop by and donate. Man, talk about bad timing. I push for our LGS to hold the tournament and then the PG's schedule it the day I'm traveling down to Dallas.

Finally, some little news:
Chocolate that comfort food? Maybe not.
Water & Population. Expanding Supply vs Reducing Per-Capita-Expenditure
El Nino effects on S. America

I haven't been able to read any further articles right now due to scheduling (I've been traveling all over the place).

So this is wrong...

I read this article and immediately I thought that price scheming to conserve water destroys the fundamental human right for free and equitable access to water sources. By making it cost more, it implies it's a luxury so that only the wealthy can afford it. Now, in China, it's a lot of Rural vs Urban, but there are poorer Urban families as well.

I just don't like it.

New Well Drilled in Ethiopia

Found another interesting website/charity today, Water Partners International. It's generally the same facts, but it's in a concise and specific area to locate them. I cannot verify any of the information, but that's always the problem. I'm not sure where these citations are coming from. So take some information with a grain of salt (like every 15 sec a child dies from water related causes). But we're still facing a serious problem of water scarcity and my hesitance to accept information as fact without reliable sources in no way degrades the issue at hand; water scarcity, sanitation, & quality is a huge problem, especially for 2009 for many countries.


Charity: Water drilled the first new well in Ethiopia from fund raising from Twestival (Twitter + festival), raising $250,000. You can watch a few videos and find more information on Charity: Water's website, over here.

Circle of Blue had a couple of interesting articles, from indigenous traditions to water wars in Asia to megadroughts.


Speaking about Charity: Water, their awareness bracelets came today. Pretty cool lookin', I have to say. I have a bunch of them, so I'll be handing them out to those that want one.

Water and America

Read an interesting news article summary. Congress & the President have enacted a bill that restores water shed and wilderness. While the focus of the bill is more about green and conservation, it's interesting to note how it's going to affect CA and the drought/water problems CA often faces...

You can read the article here or the full version here.

Painting a Watery Theme

Well, I'm now faced with the conundrum of how to paint an army with watery effects. I'm thinking a mottled blue fading from dark to light in patches...mimicking how water looks from above. The other way is to base dark blue and slowly fade to lighter blue (but not by much) on raised areas. Use a silver for trim.

I tried the mottle with little success but I was also being impatient. I might need to pick up PP paints for this.

I'll have pictures up on my progress soon.