blaquemote

What Santa brought me, or 'My list of PHAT LEWT' - thanks in part to my addiction to Beyond Ear Candy: Demons & Wizards - 'Touched by the Crimson King' limited edition Edguy - 'Mandrake' limited edition Edguy - 'Hall of Flame' Gamma Ray - 'Majestic' Lefay - 'S.O.S.' Morgana Lefay - 'Grand Materia' Nocturnal Rites - 'New World Messiah' Pagan's Mind - 'Celestial Entrance' Pagan's Mind - 'enigmatic: calling' Pyramaze - 'Melancholy Beast' Savage Circus - 'Dreamland Manor' and on dvd: Iced Earth - 'Gettysburg' U.D.O. - 'Nailed to Metal' boxset Manowar - 'Hell on Earth IV' other than that, I received a copy of the City of Splendors: Waterdeep sourcebook, a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, an Altec Lansing headset with mic, some clothes, and some cash and gift cards. Oh, and my first three sets of Master Series paints from Reaper.

non-cheesecake minis are one reason I love Sandra Garrity's work. This is not to say there aren't other sculptors who do as well with 'dressed' minis, but I'm quite partial to Sandra's attention to detail. ~Hoyt.

Sergeant Crunch is right - do not hesitate to get to a doctor! Let me share my story with you... About a year and a half ago, I waited to go to the doctor for two weeks after the first irritation I felt in my eye - thinking it was merely an allergeric reaction to something. When I went to my family doctor to verify my theory after two weeks of waking up in the middle of the night with my right eye feeling like there was sand grinding against it, he found nothing. But he also suggested I get to a specialist who has better exam equipment at their disposal. So the enxt day after work, I went by the Optometrist at Sam's Club. She took a great deal of time looking and looking; using the yellow dye; looking and looking... and she finally found the problem. There was the tiniest piece of clear tape stuck to my right eye just above the iris, beneath the eyelid. So the time it bothered me most was in the middle of the night when your eye tends to dry out some. The REM would cause the object to irritate the eyelid and the eye itself. So I would wake up with severe discomfort and some pain, holding a cold wet washcloth to my eye area until it passed. The optometrist removed the tape - but guess what? The tape took a tiny piece of my cornea, leaving a 'scar' in my eye. So now I have to put the night-time eye lubricant in my right eye every night before bedtime... probably for the rest of my life! I have been to two different Opthamologists since a year ago when this happened. The first recommended the lubricant, saying that it should give the eye a better chance to heal because... ok, imagine a pothole in the road. The pothole keeps getting filled, yet the traffic keeps hitting it, causing the filler asphault to eventually wear out of the hole again. This is what's happening with my eye. Later, when the healing wasn't happening even with the lubricant, the first specialist put a contact in my eye for five days. He was hoping this would help. And it did for a short while. After a month or so, I was able to stop adding the night-time ointment. Then one day after about another month had passed, I woke up with the same irritation. He examined it again, and suggested I go to a second specialist. The second specialist has given me two options... the first option (hold onto your seat) is to scrape the entire eye down to match the hole in the cornea. This would be the equivalent of a road crew completely repaving a road to get rid of the potholes. *shudder* I don't care for that one. The second option would be to go in there with a needle and spot-weld the hole in cornea. I still don't like that idea but it's better than the first one. Oh and the third option is to live with it and use the 10-damn-dollar a tube ointment every night for the rest of my life. *grumble* Which reminds me, I'm due to buy another tube today. I don't have to explain how seriously important it is now to people to get top a doctor when something like this happens. DO NOT SECOND GUESS YOUR HEALTH! Please! I hope everything turns out ok for you my friend. I wish you well. ~Hoyt.

very nice work. *thumbs up* can't wait to get started again myself. And seeing quality work like this only inspires me to get those brushes wet again. Thanks, ~Hoyt.

I missed ReaperCon last year, but hope to make my first one in 2006. I've been away from painting for a few years now. But this past year - and the last few months in particular - I've been lurking here, waiting for that spark... And so it happened. I have ordered my first batch of Reaper Master Series paints as a Christmas gift from my wife. Just a few triads to start with. I already have a decent set of Vallejos that haven't been opened yet. But I needed some triads to help me as I forget everything I ever knew about painting and start anew. I'll be watching the forums more closely for tips, tricks, and methods now that I am almost ready to begin again. I just need to set myself up a good paint station and I'll be ready to slap paint with you all! Hope to see you at the Con in May! ~Hoyt.

I agree with several people here on their choice of background music. I am an old-school gamer, as well as an old-school metal-head. And I like good, aggressive, melodic power-thrash metal. Bands such as Iced Earth, Nevermore, Blind Guardian, Therion, Nightwish, Rhapsody, Seven Witches (with Bobby Lucas), Exhibition... and the list goes on. www.icedearth.com www.nevermore.tv www.blind-guardian.com www.megatherion.com www.mightyrhapsody.com www.nightwish.com www.exhibitionproject.com ~Hoyt.