strawhat

Several. One of the top ones is fishing with Pa Strawhat for halibut in Alaska. Pa Strawhat isn't really one for being on the water, or fish, so going out with him was something special.

If I can, I prefer to plan... usually. The bigger the event, the more I want at least a rough outline of what to expect. I've never been very spontaneous, but I'm becoming even less so as I get older.

I've had a number of them from time to time. Most have probably succumbed to the ravages of time and poor upkeep, though. I bought heavily into MtG when it burst onto the scene. I had a number of Unlimited, Arabian Nights, and Antiquities. A Mox Emerald, two Time Walks, a handful of dual lands, Diamond Valley, Elephant Graveyard, Mishra's Workshop, etc. I sold those off to fund my D&D Minis habit. I was fortunate enough to meet Ron Spencer at a tournament and have a couple cards autographed by him (Order of the Ebon Hand and Tundra Wolves, IIRC). I have a nearly complete run of the Babylon 5 CCG with several autographed cards. I still have some comics, in unknown condition. I was an X-fanboy for a decade or so and pushed as far back as I reasonably could with the Uncanny X-Men. I think I had most everything from about 150 through the mid-200s, through about 1995. I collected the 2099 Spider-Man and Doom. I have a few others, too. I own a Mercury dime, which isn't really that rare. I had one of the Delaware quarter misprints where the reverse side of the coin is upside down. But I didn't realize it was a collector thing at the time, so it gotmixed in with my regular coins (it was very early in the release), and I just figured I'd get another in a couple days. Oops.

There's lots of good answers out here today. I'd probably want Frank Miller and Lynn Varney's cover to The Dark Knight Returns #1 (silhouette of a mid-air Batman in front of a lightning bolt). Or maybe something from Alex Ross (that isn't Joker and Harley).

The orcs are done! I am working on the heroes, alt heroes, Mentor, and Ragnar now. Well, not "now," now--but "now" in a more general sense. I started them last night, and will continue to plug away until done.

Have you seen the Mirror paint from Stuart Semple/Culture Hustle? It's expensive (~$40 a bottle) but they say the bottle is enough to cover an 8'x8' area. I saw a video on YouTube where some car guys (Dip Your Car) sprayed some shells with it. I don't remember much about it, just that it looked pretty nice. You can't top-coat it with anything solvent based, though. Something about the solvent kills breaks down the mirror-effect.

I guess whatever has the best reward/pay to effort ratio! I've always sort of envied those who had an actual response to "what do you want to be when you grow up" questions. For me it's mostly just been a matter of "whatever pays the bills" plus a bit of "I need a change" with no definite plan or preferences.

CJ (Miniature Poodle Mix): My favorite thing to remember about CJ was her "talking back." Every time you'd tell her to be quiet she'd follow up with a very quiet "woof." I guess she needed to get the last word in. Ming (Calico Siamese Mix): Ming came with Mrs. Strawhat, Eldest, and Youngest when they moved in with me. Ming wasn't terribly fond of me initially and we'd just go about our business and left each other alone. I managed to catch some sort of virus shortly after they all moved in, and Ming wouldn't leave my side for more than a couple minutes for the entire day. She was basically my cat after that. Pepper (Tortie Domestic Shorthair): Unlike Ming, Pepper took to me almost instantly. My favorite memories of her are from nearer the end of her time. Almost every morning when it was time for me to wake up and get moving, Pepper would be snuggled against my chest dozing happily. Topaz (Domestic Mediumhair): So far, my favorite memory of Topaz is from shortly after we got her (Pepper had a tough time after Ming passed and we got Topaz in an attempt to help keep Pepper active and interested in things: it mostly worked even if they never really got along--Topaz was twice Pepper's size and like to play a little rougher than Pepper was prepared to handle). Anyway, Topaz was a rambunctious sort when she was younger and we could count on her to do any number of unpredictable things. One such example comes from an evening Mrs. Strawhat and I were calmly watching TV and this blaze of orange goes soaring between our heads and lands in the middle of the living room. The little stinker cleared the loveseat (with room to spare) in a single leap.

I mostly skip it, even though I regularly read the paper starting in my early 20s. The decline in quality (both in terms of the reporting and the physical printed sheet), increase in prices, etc. have all pushed me away. Even the comics are mostly junk anymore. The last time I read the Sunday paper, one section was about 50% print ads.

I only joined the ranks of the smart-phoned a little over a year ago. I'm tempted to go back to a standard flip-phone given a decent enough reason. But I would wager that the web browser and camera are the most used, although I now text more than I have in the past.

Has it been almost three weeks already? I guess so. It didn't feel like that long. Another eight models down, only four more to go out of the core! Still lots of little details on the models, difficulty with shallow/soft detail, tiny heads (especially on the male orcs), etc. Two female Orcs armed with a mace. Two female orcs with swords. Two male orcs with tiny heads...err...and axes. And finally... Two male orcs with swords. I guess I forgot to take a picture of their fronts, but you get the idea. Maybe I'll get another shot tomorrow, but everything is put away at the moment. The orc skin was done with the Brilliant Greens triad lowered with Green Shadow and boosted with Moth Green (the highlights on the second brightest orcs were done with a 2:1 of Moth Green and Viper Green. The armor was worked up with the Silver Metallics (so many edges, so...many...edges...) triad lowered with Adamantium Black on four of them. The loin clothes are a combination of the Warm Deep Browns and Warm Light Browns triads. I really love the progression on those two triads, and find that they join quite nicely. The belts and straps were painted with the Red Browns triad. The weapons are all the Natural Steel triad and Gold Metallics on the details. I thought about mixing it up a bit, but wanted to make sure I had a little more unity among them. The eyes and teeth were very tiny. I was originally going to use three or even four colors for the eyes, but realized that you really couldn't see them. So I just went with Midnight Blue on all the eyes. It might as well be Pure Black. My hands just aren't steady enough to hit those beady little eyes consistently. The teeth are Bone Shadow and Polished bone. There's simply no point to try to do all three colors, and really the only reason why I hit the teeth with Bone Shadow was to give the Polished bone something to grip. I probably should have just used Aged Bone instead of the Polished as I feel that the tiny, tiny teeth are just a bit too bright. On to the Heroes! Thanks for dropping by!

If there's a way to mix a metaphor, I'm your huckleberry.

Pick up lines were never my thing. I would just straight up ask and accept rejection with as much dignity as I could muster. I didn't really hang out in singles bars, so there wasn't a lot of people seeking to pick up/hook up wherever I was. I was completely unaware the few times that girls found me interesting enough to try to pursue. It was like a tank being shot with a sidearm--The tank just lumbers along not realizing it's been shot at until the crew gets out and notices the scratches in the paint. It wouldn't bother me except that I had been very interested in those girls at those respective times. As for Mrs. Strawhat, she shot me down in record time. She said she had a hair appointment that night so I let it drop. One of her associates at the time gave her no end of grief until she relented and agreed to go with me. We've been together 21 years.

I'm not sure that I've had it. I'm not exactly a connoisseur, so as long as it's not horrible I'm sure it would be fine. There are only a few brands that I simply despise...Coors happens to be one of them.

Not only does it taste like Coors, it's non-alcholic? Gonna let that one go by.

Yes. When I was a child my brother and I would sometimes "acquire" a wild garter snake (plains or common) that we would house for a couple weeks, then release. Pa Strawhat does not like snakes so that was about all he could handle. As an adult we did try to keep fish a couple times. We started with bettas, and neither Eldest, Mrs. Strawhat, or myself could keep one alive. Youngest had a tank for a several years that she was able to keep going. I don't remember the types of fish she had in that one.

When I first started reading comics, I was an exclusive X-Reader. I didn't ever really read anything beyond the X-Titles as the number of those grew during the 90s. I eventually branched out a bit by reading things Marshal Law and a few DC Vertigo titles as well as Dark Horse and indie things like The Tick, Grendel, Mage, Sin City, The Crow, and Gregory and more! I also started picking up Shadow of the Bat and Legends of the Dark Knight, while also picking up the odd Elseworlds titles (Kingdom Come is especially noteworthy). I read a lot of comics in the day, many of which I'm leaving out. I eventually tired of the endless crossover events which seemed to be 20 pages of recap and splash pages of the main teams fighting and two pages of plot and stopped reading/buying. When it comes to movies, I'm pretty much exclusively Marvel unless it comes to Batman--although I've not seen anything since Christian Bale hung up the cowl. I just haven't had the urge to see any of the Justice League movies. I have seen Constantine, Green Lantern, and Watchmen, as well as NetFlicks' adaptation of The Sandman. I kind of wish that someone would get the gumption to do a Westley Dodds Sandman series or movie. I dug Matt Wagner's Sandman Mystery Theatre.

When I was a kid, I figured I'd end up in the sciences somewhere. As I got older, I shifted my focus to business. I never really thought I'd end up with a family. I ended up an Excel monkey with a family. It shouldn't be too tough to figure out which of those are more meaningful. Life doesn't always take you where you think it ought to go--so sometimes you just have to go with it and make the most of where you end up. Some things roll off my back, some things really get to me. Sometimes I think my reactions to things are inversely proportionate to the severity of life's hiccups. I try to not get too excited about things that I can't control, though. Sometimes. Results have been, at best, mixed. Ah, now here's something I know about! I do remember The Muppet Show, the short-lived ABC re-boot, and the Disney+ show as well! I rewatched the classic show about a year ago, and have watched a couple of the movies since then. I swear I don't have a thing for puppets. Between TMS, Fraggle Rock, and Sesame Street I can name between forty and fifty. I admit that I had to look up Gaffer's name, though.

Thank you for this! When one of my uncles passed, many years ago, I claimed a similar chochkie from his estate that read, “for all my loving friends” on the base.

DST stinks. Just pick one and stick with it. Can't decide if it's better standard or saving? Split the difference and make a half-hour adjustment. Just. Stop. Switching.

Bloody Vikings! Don’t they realize that their spam kills forums, the forums get taken offline, then there’s no way to see their posts?!

I suppose the most recent thing would by my grandson's birthday party. It was a mix of families (Eldest's ("our") side, about five of us, a couple family friends, and twenty of son-in-law's family ("their" side) in a fairly small house. I told Mrs. Strawhat that this was about three times as many people as I was comfortable with. I've met of son-in-law's family at least a couple times, but I don't see them enough to remember more than a couple names. It went "ok" although my nerves were too jangled to eat or drink anything.

It depends on the situation. While, in general, the house is a "good enough" retreat for most situations where I'm overloaded, when things in the house get to be a little too much (typically, this is when the in-laws are in town) I generally retreat to the bedroom or I try to find a less-occupied area of the house and then bury my head in silly games on one of the tablets. Painting actually gets me better results than tablet games, but the setup for painting is a bit much and people have a tendency to suddenly become very interested in what I'm doing when the painting kit comes out. I've been known to paint over lunch at the office (not so much lately, as the boss doesn't mind me leaving early if I cut my lunch short). But when I did paint, I always dreaded the inevitable questions: How do you do that? (I put the brush in the paint, then I put the brush on the mini...) How do you see things that small? (I hold it very close, just like I was doing when you asked me...) Isn't that tedious? (No, this conversation is...) I like to read as well, although I'm not as much of reader as I used to be. And if I'm trying to find refuge in the house, the chances are that it's going to be too difficult to focus on what I'm trying to read.

On a scale of 1 (very extroverted) to 10 (very introverted), I'm an 11. OK, maybe not--probably a strong 8. But it sure feels like an 11 some days. I'm mostly good with it, although it makes some things (like meeting people with whom to game) difficult. I can deal with large crowds in certain circumstances (concerts, sporting events, etc. where there's a pretty set time limit) or when I'm with a couple friends who can serve as buffers. As I've gotten older, my introversion has become more pronounced and that isn't the way I'd prefer things to be.

An original Deities and Demigods with C'Thulhu Mythos and Melnibonean...Of course, that was over *muhphernafur* decades ago. I sorta wish I had kept it.