CashWiley

Golden brown, as intended. Though I don't make toast anymore, gave my toaster oven to my mother and never got around to getting a new one. My oddity is that I don't usually butter my bread (or toast), it tastes gross to me. I was amazing tablemates with @Kuro Cleanbrush, who likes to mainline plates of butter 😄

The relationship between Han and Leia, especially under Kershner's direction. The level of depth and maturity between them has yet to be matched, which I find pretty sad. That said, I love Star Wars and have since I saw it in theaters in 77. But I'm not a Star Wars fan, judging by most fans I know, since they seem to hate Star Wars. I don't discuss it with people, I just enjoy it purely without the cynical hate machine.

I would rate myself a solid 5, as I'm untrained and not a foodie type. I just make solid basic food for dinner at home kinda thing. However, I may lowball myself because I rarely find even high-end restaurants that can prepare basic foods as well as I can (salmon, steak, rice, veg, etc). I only eat at 2 restaurants in the area, because their chefs are incredible. So much over-priced, over (or under) cooked food being served out there. My favorite is probably a simple pan of tri-tip strips or steaks sided with whole grain wild rice and steamed broccoli. Tender beef cuts are so simple, just a hot cast iron skillet (or grill) and a Thermapen. We don't eat at steakhouses because their steaks suck in comparison. Runner up would be the same but with salmon as the protein, a nice pan-seared salmon that is still slightly underdone when plated (it will finish cooking by the time we sit down to eat, if you finish it in the pan, it will overcook and be chalky/squeaky/weird texture that 99% of restaurant salmon has). I like it just this side of translucent, I guess a kind of medium rare? And al dente on rice and broccs, though I slightly overcook both to compromise with my mate who enjoys them a bit more overcooked. Anyway, having/being a good home cook really does ruin most restaurants. Makes me kinda sad, since I'm just a punter. Can't imagine being worse than me at cooking and calling yourself a professional.

Yes.

College level biochemistry. Like most knowledge, it does get used to varying extents, but more importantly forms an underlying understanding of things that gets used all the time. Most importantly, having a mindset built on the scientific method makes life a LOT easier. Working in IT, it seems literally nobody understands fundamental testing concepts like 'isolating variables'. I only ever regret not taking more science classes (200 level college stuff, I did all the AP and regular science classes my high school had to offer, IFLS...and ironically I also took all the art classes my school offered...including working with the teachers to create new programs like fashion design). I also believe science is a pure form of worship, seeking to understand the reality we live in. But even just understanding stuff like nutrient uptake and transpiration, super basic stuff, helps out in the garden (at least when I had one going).

Around 10-11 o'clock in the evening. I have what is referred to as 'leaky' sensory gating, I get very distracted by background sounds. Around the city noise ordinance kicking in, I can begin to concentrate. That can last until the morning when the activity and noise starts up again. Back when I worked night shift in the 90s, it was a godsend to be able to have my prime hours be my most functional! It sucks now that I work banker's hours, it's hard to go to bed when I'm finally able to relax and concentrate, even though I'm often too tired to actually create anything. I like this Kafka quote on the subject: “I need solitude for my writing; not ‘like a hermit’ -- that wouldn’t be enough -- but like a dead man.” Ironically, one of my most productive songwriting periods I was living next to a graveyard...

Slasher films are having a board gaming moment with Final Girl, so the kids are getting some exposure. The solo board game reddit loves that series, even I'm tempted to try it out. Ironically, Kingdom Death has done quite well with their high school 'Death High' series. One of the reasons fantasycide doesn't hit for me is the itemization. I guess I just like guns more than xbows at the end of the day, and spells don't do much for me at all. In fact, I realize that they could likely pull me in with a new Invader campaign, especially if they went toward more complexity and itemization. Unfortunately, they're heading in the opposite direction, streamlining and stripping down. I felt the game was already simplistic enough and I already tend to add in a few more wrinkles (like objectives for certain gear or faux crafting or whatever strikes my fancy when I'm playing, hoping to put together a time travel homebrew for it at some point. Speaking of, that would be an easy way to phone in a campaign. Just build a crossover ruleset the way TSR did back in the day with Gamma World and Boot Hill. They could make bank on modular packs of era-themed minis. I hope they never do this 😄

Not a big fan of fantasycide, so I was very happy to see this setting for this campaign. The Marvel one cost me a bunch of dough (before shipping ye gods), and I'm about good on zombicide boxes in the closet, so I was done before the announced it was Marvel. Maybe if they do a Star Wars themed campaign, otherwise I'm good with zombicide. Not sure what game IP would get me buying again, I'm pretty good on KDM stuff at this point, too. And the last Massive Darkness was so huge with the crossoverability, I'm probably fine with that now. We'll see where I stand with Cthulhu DMD, but I feel like if they get the episodic stuff right I could maybe swing one more season.

Reds are a pain to keep red due to their inherent low value and the tendency of lighter hues to shift them to pink or orange. I still use them quite a bit, but it's rarely satisfying. Dislike the pigments in white hobby paint, I'm guessing titanium, the dreaded chalkiness. With oils, we have the option of using lovely lead white that doesn't take over a mix and can keep things more translucent.

When I was hanging with Kev White and Tre Manor at Reapercon long ago, Kev was asking me what I looked for on this topic. I laughed and told him I was so new and inexperienced that he was asking the wrong guy 😄 Ironic that the mini I just posted to the monthly Qs thread is a tiny Kev sculpt that I used to develop a damask effect! We've discussed the issue with sculpted pupils before, but there's another sculptor quirk that bugs me, sculpting in logos. CMoN's Marvel Zombicide is a good example of sculpting in detail that should be painted. Wolverine's costume's torso tiger stripes, the X symbol, the FF symbol, Cpt Marvel's torso logo, etc, etc.

I used to exercise when I was younger, but I hated it. Got bored immediately by the repetition. Wish I could afford to have an inground pool to swim laps! My main exercise is playing bass, I try to get in at least 4 hours a week. Doesn't sound like much, but I'm kind of a full-body musician in that I move to keep time. I got a lot of funny looks when I told people I couldn't play bass because my toe got sprained (it's the big toe of my timekeeping/hi-hat foot). Anyway, good for the heart but I have to make sure I stretch and keep things limber 😄 And keep the setlist varied, not just for variety's sake, but to keep from having a solid set of Opeth, Metallica, Mastodon, etc and have my heart rate shoot through the roof!

Been so long I don't remember, and it's likely the handful of minis I've posted in the daily questions already 😉 So here's an unfinished one that I spent some time on a long time ago. Gwen from Kev White's Hasslefree Minis. SO TINY. Hard to see the TMM, it has some colored shadows iirc.

I served on the board of the local art association for a while. I didn't have the headspace for the additional load, so I resigned (just before the pandemic, so that worked out ok), but I hope to return in a few years when I can hopefully retire. Since I work at the library and already serve the public (23 years now!), I'm not too worried about my civic duty being fulfilled (I just get paid for it heh...though it's darn close to volunteer work at this point). I figure when I stop being a public servant here, I'll just pivot over to that org for the long haul.

Probably the deluxe edition of Atonement, 75mm: Not sure, I don't keep track of things like that. I know I've hung off a ledge by my fingers at over 800 feet, does that count?

Thanks! Made some nice food (steaks on Sat, pizza on Sun), read a bit, got pretty deep into Pathfinder Kingmaker with my NG 1/2 orc rogue.