Magnetize a Carnifex

I stumbled on this amazing article on how to

Magnetize a Carnifex

This article was not written by me or anyone at BTP. I'm just providing the link. And one last helpful tip: keep a "master magnet" glued to a piece of board or what-not. This is your polarity for all host points and will assure that everything you do, for any army, for any model, has consistent polarity on the magnets.

Self-Examination

Sunday September 28 2008 Braces

This is mount Timpanogas. It is located directly North of where I live and it towers over the valley, an ageless compass point.

If I belaboured you with the details of this day, you would slip into a catatonic state most likely. I really don't think you'll be interested.

But that never stopped me before!

Yesterday, I got home early, packed up all three kids in the car and headed out to Macey's. They're closed on Sundays, so it's always really busy on Saturday night. It's really magical, almost like the whole city is down there. Like a town market where I can brush elbows with the locals.

I couldn't find the kids shoes, so they just went barefoot. I remember being young-- I don't think I even wore shoes all summer long. There was a dirt road in front of our house, and I would walk up and down it at the beginning of summer to toughen up my feet.

Anyway, we got groceries and some soft serve ice cream and headed back home.

Today was even less eventful. I went for a walk around the block by myself this morning, but no breakthroughs, no insights, just the normal chatter of chaos that goes on in my mind; a stew of worry and fantasy.

Then off to church, which started well, but ended of course with Griffin wailing and squirming. My wife took off after sacrament meeting to go visit her sister in Salt Lake (her nephew had appendicitis so she's going up to help). Griffin was in an odd temper and wouldn't go to his class. I think I got him worked up in the foyer keeping him sitting next to me. I can't help but wonder if maybe I should just let him run around like a madman outside half the time.

This left me with the kids for this entire afternoon, a delight, to say the least. We made chicken dinosaurs in the microwave for lunch and mashed potatoes and vegetables for dinner. I absolutely love to spend time with the kids. Their clear eyes and enthusiasm make life 50% happier.

I also got to spend part of the day preparing for the upcoming D&D adventure. It's going to be a blast. I got the new Adventurer's gear book, which is an invaluable resource, chock full of magic items. A lot of them are quite ingenious.



When I had my braces on, I asked the orthodontist if he could just tighten the braces up to the maximum level straitaway and get it all over with. He said that would do irreparable damage to my teeth, that the adjustment had to be gradual so the teeth could adjust.



The adjustments are painful, but after a few days the discomfort goes away and I'm one step closer to beautiful, white, straight teeth. It's just a matter of patience through the years.



This is how it has been with my soul. I am impatient. I thought that coming up on 40 years old I would be more "finished" but not so much. I am excited for this coming week, to continue on my spiritual quest; to be more faithful in the simple things.


Media is a big part of it. I need to get a better diet going. Like a missionary has-- uplifting music, audio books, conference, scriptures and so forth. I am very optimistic, though I am in a slight dip right now, it is still higher than the previous dip. Like a wavy line slowly going upwards.

Onward and upwards!

Finding Peace

This little jewel blew my mind, too.

Saturday September 27 2008 Rickety

Picture: Ork Trukk. See some more pics of the Gritty Orks prototypes.

At this particular moment I am watching Stargate Atlantis. The kids have just gone to bed, which means there are strange animal noises and thumping sounds coming from the various rooms. Ha! Let them have their fun. I am drinking some milk with ice cubes in it. Frosty.

I am still booking projects for October. There are about four slots left for the last week, so I'm in the home stretch. If those are filled up by this coming Tuesday I'll be ever so happy. It's fun to set a hard goal then work hard to achieve it!

I sincerely thank everyone that has made an inquiry.

Also still trying to sell off the Lions Rampant. Hum. Not so much that I want to get rid of them, really, they've been a lot of fun. Details were about two entries ago.

What's next? Probably Orks or perhaps that biker fast attack army I've got in that case. Sweet. The question is should I do them traditional White Scars OR make up my own chapter (the Red Dragons?). I think that with the Angry Goats, using the beastmen heads as metal masks, I think I might do the same thing with lizardmen heads. Something like that. The problem is that the crazier an army is, the less sale-able it is down the road.

Holy cow, I haven't updated the blog for like five days.

What else? This afternoon was a slow day down at the studio, just me and Joseph. We worked on some different techniques to do yellow armor. We made some good progress.

A random note about the blog: this and the youtube channel both have many thousands of active subscribers. To me it is a miracle, and I am humbled and grateful. I think it's a delightful and unexpected phenomenon. I realized some months ago that I couldn't please everyone. So, basically I just post what I post and hope people like it.

We've starting doing a "morning show". I had great fun taping and editing it. It's worth a look.

Mr. Mom

Booking for October

My only concern right now is getting projects set up for October.

I am ready to help you in any matter. If you tell me what you're after and a rough budget, I can help get the cost down.

I have a lot of good ideas for themed armies that are often very inexpensive. I have a lot of knowledge and resources.

I am also resurrecting an old special for the month of October: Hungry, Evil, or Dead Give us Artistic License for a Tyranids, Necrons, Chaos Daemons or Vampire Counts and get 25% off on Painting and cost of Materials. In the case of Chaos Daemons it needs to be a themed army of mostly one chaos god.

You can find a la carte pricing guides here:http://www.bluetablepainting.com/downloads.php OR you can just email or call me with your list. I can completely help you with any matter.

PS- here's a cute pic of Shadowsun:

Yeah, but now what?

Most of you are familiar with my journey of political awakening. I am just a regular guy trying to figure it out.

Here's a site I've found very useful to get information about legislation and your representatives. So, now is the time to call, write and get involved.

http://www.votesmart.org/index.htm

I often feel like I am griping over nothing. After all, I have it pretty good. Maybe I should just shut up and like it. Not likely! I'm going to push forward.

Letter from Ron Paul about the "Mother of All Bailouts"

Dear Friends:

The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived.

We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.

Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, since I'd only be repeating what I've been saying over and over - not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.
Still, at least a few observations are necessary.The president assures us that his administration "is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets." Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation spree were even mentioned?

We are told that "low interest rates" led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low interest rates distort the market. Entrepreneurs engage in malinvestments - investments that do not make sense in light of current resource availability, that occur in more temporally remote stages of the capital structure than the pattern of consumer demand can support, and that would not have been made at all if the interest rate had been permitted to tell the truth instead of being toyed with by the Fed.

Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or "wildcat capitalism" (as if we actually have a pure free market!).

Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: "Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to borrow enormous sums of money, fuel the market for questionable investments, and put our financial system at risk."

Doesn't that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie in the first place? Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn't the federal government shown that the "many" who "believed they were guaranteed by the federal government" were in fact correct?

Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary "the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet." Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on propping them up.

It's the same destructive strategy that government tried during the Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the economy recovered within less than a year.

The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention these days.

F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' manipulation of interest rates creates the boom-bust cycle with which we are sadly familiar. In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, he described the foolish policies being pursued in his day - and which are being proposed, just as destructively, in our own:

Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion.

To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end... It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.

The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will restore prosperity! Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is called into question?Oh, and did you notice that the bailout is now being called a "rescue plan"? I guess "bailout" wasn't sitting too well with the American people.

The very people who with somber faces tell us of their deep concern for the spread of democracy around the world are the ones most insistent on forcing a bill through Congress that the American people overwhelmingly oppose.

The very fact that some of you seem to think you're supposed to have a voice in all this actually seems to annoy them.I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote the correct point of view on the crisis. Be sure also to educate yourselves on these subjects - the Campaign for Liberty blog is an excellent place to start. Read the posts, ask questions in the comment section, and learn.H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

Lions Rampant on the Block

I'm selling the studio Lions Rampant army. It is 3000- 3500 points.

Cost is $1859.

That includes shipping in the US.

Overseas is $16 more.

See more still pics: http://www.bluetablepainting.com/view...

Constists of:

72x infantry as follows--

33x lasgun

3x lascannon

3x autocannon

3x missile launcher

4x plasma rifle

7x grenade launcher

7x meltagun

4x flamers

1x commissar in carapace armor

3x converted officers

4x storm trooper sergeants

3x sentinels

1x leman russ vanquisher

1x leman russ demolisher

2x baneblade

1x hellhound

3x basilisk

4x chimera

Economics Lesson

The Austrian School asserts that inflation is an increase in the money supply, rising prices are merely consequences and this semantic difference is important in defining inflation[17]. Ludwig von Mises, the seminal scholar of the Austrian School, asserts that:

Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check. But people today use the term `inflation' to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation. . . . As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar. As long as this terminological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation (Emphasis added).[18]

Following their definition, Austrian economists measure the inflation by calculating the growth of what they call 'the true money supply', i.e. how many new units of money that are available for immediate use in exchange, that have been created over time.[19][20][21]

This interpretation of inflation implies that inflation is always a distinct action taken by the central government or its central bank, which permits or allows an increase in the money supply.[22] In addition to state-induced monetary expansion, the Austrian School also maintains that the effects of increasing the money supply are magnified by credit expansion, as a result of the fractional-reserve banking system employed in most economic and financial systems in the world.[23]

Austrians claim that the state uses inflation as one of the three means by which it can fund its activities, the other two being taxing and borrowing.[24] Therefore, they often seek to identify the reasons for why the state needs to create new money and what the new money is used for.

Various forms of military spending is often cited as a reason for resorting to inflation and borrowing, as this can be a short term way of acquiring marketable resources and is often favored by desperate, indebted governments.[25] In other cases, the central bank may try avoid or defer the widespread bankruptcies and insolvencies which cause economic recessions or depressions by artificially trying to "stimulate" the economy through "encouraging" money supply growth and further borrowing via artificially low interest rates.[26]

Swiper no Swiping!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Dear Friends,

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.The events of the past week are no exception.

The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."That describes the current bailout package to a T.

And we're being told it's unavoidable.

The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!

• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.• Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government." This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.•

Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.

There goes your country.

Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this "sadly necessary." Sad, yes. Necessary? Don't make me laugh.Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes.

Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.

The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care? When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?

Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

Sunday September 21 2008

For those that might care, here is how my Sunday went.

I got up refreshed as usual. I go to sleep easily. I sleep deeply and awake with full vigour. My wife was not nearly as lucky. Our dynamo of a son was up three times last night. Not crying, just getting into things and running around. He is ever so tiring. So, my alarm was a grouchy pregnant wife stumbling around the house griping at the kids.

Not that I blame her. Her belly button is starting to extrovert. We call it the turkey timer.

I spent part of the morning helping her around the house. We cleaned up the disaster of a kitchen from last night when we just let everything go in order to hit the sack.

Just for the record: I have an outstanding wife. She has been a delight to live with. I have 90% less drama than other men. She is forgiving and easy to get along with; sincere and forthright.

I got to reading the Adventurer's Vault, a magic item book for D&D. I am very favorably impressed so far. My D&D group doesn't know it yet but I plan on making this stuff generally available. Well, maybe. It's more fun to find things.

The boys were fighting this morning and I got quite upset about it. They can't even just watch cartoons in peace. Brugh! So, I sent them to their rooms. That really broke my spirit. I've been trying really hard the last four days to have peace in the house and to get to the next level personally.

Here's the deal with that. Whenever I try to better myself significantly, everything goes wrong. It's called the trial of faith. The scriptures are replete with examples of it: Alma and Amulek in prison, Elijah and the Widow, King Hezekiah (my personal fave-- that guy had giant brass balls), and the classic Peter walking on water (tear...). Oh and Joseph Smith in the grove. Basically, everything has gone wrong in the last five days since I really got down to business (spiritually speaking). It's to be expected. After today I think I'm ready to get my head down into the wind and keep plowing ahead.

There is no way around the trial of faith.

So, I really didn't feel like going to church today. In fact, I skipped out on an EQ meeting (calling ahead of course). My friend John (the EQ prez) came by to check on me after. Really, a simple visit can mean so much sometimes.

Sacrament meeting was hell. Griffin just does not let up. He's so noisy and he climbs all over me. He got into some sourpatch bears in my wife's basket and then started biting me on my shoulders, leaving pink stains on my shirt. I took him out in the hall, but he got away from me and started stuffing licorice in the tithing slip trays. Oh, man he's a terror. What's the point of even going? So, thankfully I took him to nursery afterwards giving me two sweet hours of peace.

I almost just went home but I decided to give peace a chance and go to Gospel Doctrine. The teacher noticed that I had my head in my hands and called on my for the opening prayer. "Way to home in on the least spiritual person in the room" I said. I was in a pretty foul mood. But by the end of it all I was all charged up again. Glad I stayed.

Nothing to do but keep trudging along!

After that it was just a whiled away the afternoon. Kenna got her hair cut by a sister from church-- it's an adorable Jodie Foster bob. I think she'll be happier now with less tangles. We went on a family walk with Griffin trundling along on his trike. The weather was perfect. We only did half of our circuit on account of Tamie's condition. Griffin is such a sweet and responsive child. I think he's living life twice as much as other humans. He's my buddy, the apple of my eye.

If it weren't for Sunday I would work myself to death.

Right now I'm polishing up a few episodes of Star Trek and drinking some Ovaltine. I broke down a few weeks back and bought season three of TNG on eBay. Yay!

For the five people who actually read this blog I say: keep your chin up. When you think like giving up, just take a few more steps. It's bound to get better.

Bonus material:

I had a dream in which I saw a cage with a dead eagle in it, sprawled on the bottom. I asked the guide if maybe I had fed it the wrong thing. No, she responded, it wasn't fed at all.

I had another dream where I walked into a hospital waiting room. Don Rickles was in there. I asked if he was all right. He said "No, I'm having a heart attack here."

There was more to both of those, but who cares, really?

I am starting to see through the illusion of this life.

Last Word

This is from an article about the "mother of all bailouts"

The cost of doing nothing would have been far more severe because the clogged credit markets would make it harder for businesses to get the loans they need to keep operating, he said. Doing nothing also would make it harder for consumers to get the credit they need for car loans and other purchases, the Treasury secretary said. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of total economic activity.

Read the rest

Hey, how about just spending money you actually have. Most of my transactions are pay as you go here at BTP. You don't need a loan for everything. How about paying outright for a car? That's what I did. I bought a $500 piece of junk with no heater. I drove that lousy tin can for over a year. I saved up to buy a $900 car that is infinitely better (radio AND AC).

These banks and credit card companies would have you believe that you can't live without them (life takes Visa, after all). The opposite is true. If we all said "pass" to interest then maybe those bankers would have to actually go produce something. I would love to see that.

If my daughter brought home a lawyer, a banker, and a mechanic as potential suitors, I would spit on the shoes of the first two. I have respect for people who actually produce a service or product that people would actually want to buy. A farmer, a janitor, a factory worker; those are honest jobs.

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

There's some lovely filth down here...

.
Holy crap! I'm a serf!

For example: I got sold to another "lord of the manor", ie I got a notice that my mortgage was bought by another company (the interest of which eats up a THIRD of my labor).

If you add up taxes and interest, I live on less than 25% of my income. How is that not serfdom? I just live on an extremely large plantation (aka the USA).

Well, it's food for thought. I am still working my way through all of this.



But homeowners are not the only ones who will pay. The overall economy likely will shrink as well. That $200 billion that flowed into the "real" economy in 2004 is already spent, with no future capital gains in the works to fuel more such easy money. Rising debt-service payments will further divert income from new consumer spending. Taken together, these factors will further shrink the "real"economy, drive down those already declining real wages, and push our debt-ridden economy into Japan-style stagnation or worse. Then only the debt itself will remain, a bitter monument to our love of easy freedom.

- Dr. Michael Hudson

In reality, alas, we can't all be rentiers. Just as, in Voltaire's phrase, the rich require an abundant supply of the poor, so too does the rentier class require an abundant supply of debtors. There is no other way. In fact, the vast majority of Americans have seen their share of the rental pie decrease over the last two decades, even as the real estate pie as a whole has expanded. Everyone got a little richer, but rich people got much, much richer.

We will be hard-pressed to maintain even this semi-blissful state. Like any living organism, real economies don't grow exponentially, or even in a straight line. They taper off into an S-curve, the victim of their own successes. When business is good, the demand for labor, raw materials, and credit increases, which leads to large jumps in wages, prices, and interest rates, which in turn act to depress the economy. That is where the miracle of compound interest founders. Although many people did save money at interest two thousand years ago, nobody has yet obtained even a single Earth-volume of gold. The reason is that when a business cycle turns down, debtors cannot pay, and so their debts are wiped out in a wave of bankruptcy along with all the savings invested in these bad loans.

Japan learned this lesson in the Nineties. As the price of land went up, banks lent more money than people could afford to pay interest on. Eventually, no one could afford to buy any more land, demand fell off, and prices dropped accordingly. But the debt remained in place. People owed billions of yen on homes worth half that—homes they could not sell.

Read the rest here.

As usual, this is just food for thought. I'm not promoting anything.

Booking for October

My only concern right now is getting projects set up for October.



I am ready to help you in any matter. If you tell me what you're after and a rough budget, I can help get the cost down. I have a lot of good ideas for themed armies that are often very inexpensive. I have a lot of knowledge and resources.



I am also resurrecting an old special for the month of October: Hungry, Evil, or Dead



Give us Artistic License for a Tyranids, Necrons, Chaos Daemons or Vampire Counts and get 25% off on Painting and cost of Materials. In the case of Chaos Daemons it needs to be a themed army of mostly one chaos god.





You can find a la carte pricing guides here:http://www.bluetablepainting.com/downloads.php OR you can just email or call me with your list. I can completely help you with any matter.



As it stands now, I will have to idle a few painters soon. This is not good. It will be very sad for them. These are really good and dedicated artists.




See how your congressman is voting AND what all the votes are about. This is every citizen's duty, I opine.
http://www.votesmart.org/index.htm

Rhino Rumble

I came across this picture of a full scale Rhino. At first I thought it was a very impressive mockup made out of wood most like.

Read Morehttp://www.thq-games.com/uk/features/show/4090

Nope. It's actually built out of metal on a working tank chassis. Yes, a real tank. When will the madness end?

Eternal Chaos

Now booking projects for October. Best to get started now.

To make a project reality I need three things:
1) The models (or a list of models to be acquired).
2) A deposit (half down)
a. Pay by phone with major Credit Card 801 372 8545
b. Pay via Paypal to bluetablepainting@gmail.com
c. Pay by MO (see website Service Guide for details)
3) The Instructions sheet filled out and returned.

If you just email me I can help you with all these things. Contact me as follows:

Email at bluetablepainting@gmail.com
Phone number is (801) 372-8545
Facebook ID is bluetablepainting http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=633040196
Google Chat ID is bluetablepainting

With the advent of Chaos Mortals for warhammer fantasy, I am of course thinking of how they could be integrated into 40K. here's an example from the studio Dragons of Moloch army:



Here a simple head and weapon swap gives the model a totally different feel.

I am eager to see how the new chaos fantasy model could be integrated into a 40K army. In fact, an army of old-style baroque army, but just replacing their weapons with chaos bolters would look absolutely amazing. Add to this the really cool options for Troops in the CSM codex (eg Plague Marines or Thousand Sons) AND that the 5th edition rulebook stresses the use of Troops choices and you've got a very playable army.
.

Army Concept: Judges of Wrath
Use the new Chaos Warrior plastics and arm then with chaos bolters. Paint in dark metallics with colored tinting like this guy's Eldar stuff. And count them as Thousand Sons. I think they are one of the most versatile and potent army units out there. With a mobile heavy weapon they can take on virtually any foe and power armored armies better shake in their ceramite boots (on account of the AP3 weapons).
.

Some parts from the Empire Flagellant plastics (which we have on hand) would complete the army feel. Other bitz from daemon and dark elf plastics would mark some of the models as Sorcerors. We could make some really cool staves.
.

What about other unit types? No reason those Chaos Knights couldn't be "count as" bikers. Or a few dreadnoughts tricked out with reliquaries and trophy racks and really medieval looking weapons. It's sort of like Chaos Mortals fantasy meets the 40th millenium, with thundering hooves they roar forth from the Warp!
.

And a McFarlane dragon with a rider as a Hell Blade. Whuf.
.

The trick to a good army is to have versatility and be able to meet a lot of different battlefield challenges. You don't want to have a one-trick pony. The problem is that the rules now call for a lot of Troops choices to take objectives. Therefore, it's of supreme importance to look closely at the codex's Troops section.

Lords of Battle

Bell of Lost Souls is at it again. Get the home-brew datafaxes for apocalyptic war machines here:

http://www.box.net/shared/diel1ercms

And be sure to visit Bell of Lost Souls www.belloflostsouls.blogspot.com

I have ideas for almost all of these if you would like Blue Table to make any of them for you. It should be said, though, that it's not cheap to scratch-build enormous models.

This Apocalypse datasheet supplement includes a host of the most cherished "big guys" from back in the days of yore. Many of these have old resin models available, and many will require scratch-building from crazed modelers like you. We have managed to track down great pics of all of these from the BoLS readerbase ~THANK YOU ALL! We have also put in a set of sample Apocalypse Independant Characters and some suggested Apocalypse battles to use your cool toys with. Enjoy!

The Table of Contents is:

Imperium
Reaver Titan (Hun Class)
Reaver Titan (Goth Class)
Legion Fellblade
Imperial Guard Leviathan
Imperial Guard Capitol Imperialis
Imperial Guard Deathstrike Missile Launcher
Knight Warden
Knight Paladin
Knight Lancer
Knight Household
Mechanicus Ordinatus Mars
Mechanicus Ordinatus Golgotha
Mechanicus Ordinatus ArmageddonEldar
Phantom Titan
Warlock Titan
Towering Destroyer Knight
Bright Stallion Knight
Exodite Knight Host
TempestOrks
Great Gargant
Slasha Gargant
Digga Stompa
Digga Mob
Gibletgrinda
Wierdboy Battle TowerTyranids
Dominatrix
Exocrene
Haruspex
Malefactor
DactylisChaos
Cannon of Khorne
Cauldron of Blood
Contagion Plague Engine
Hell Knight of Slaanesh
Harbinger Heavy BomberNecrons
Obelisk
Aspis

Fear Me Mortals, for I am Eye Candy!

The new Chaos Mortals army is coming out soon. I am surprised at how many new kits are in there. GW usually keeps the basic infantry plastics (like with Dark Elves), but in this case it looks like at least three new core units will get plastic kits; Marauder horsemen, Chaos Knights and Chaos Warriors. Amazing.
.

Unless I'm wrong. Now that I think about it, the cavalry will probably be metal. In any case they look really cool.
.

A while back I made a chaos mortals army with a ton of conversion work:

Chaos Mortals of Tchar
.

The army is now in California, but I'd like to re-do it for sure. I'm a huge fan of integrating other model ranges (eg the plastic Reek Beasts for the chariots).


One improvement GW has made to the cavalry in the last year is integrating the tails into the model. Another one is to hide the lines from putting the two horse halves together.

Now was this really necessary? The juggernaut from the Chaos Daemons release was just fine. Oh, but no, they had to go and do something even more kickass. Notice how this one has more natural animal-like features and posture.


I think that the previous Chaos Warrior Plastics were just fine. But I have to say that these new onese are much more evocative. They are also more creased in their definition. Designs of new models are also better about ranking up. Some older models are not very friendly (eg the high elf phoenix guard).

An odd downside of newer GW sculpts is that they are putting on 50% more detail. That means they are harder to paint. Empire warriors are a great example of this. The old ones were pretty plain, now they have scrolls, periapts, skulls, fishes, lunchboxes, dead birds and all sorts of malarkey all over them.

This model is out of sight. The pose is reminiscent of Frank Frazetta's stuff.

My understanding is this is a plastic kit. That would be really cool.

Slicing the Pie

Dear M,

I think I am with you on this one. It's a sad, sad day when the democrats are starting to look like the fiscally conservative ones.

.

I look at things in terms of where the money goes.

If McCain gets into office who knows what countries we'll be invading and fighting. An endless round of fighting. After reading his book Faith of my Fathers it's clear he just does whatever the hell he wants. But he's going to cut pork barrel spending! Really? Then what about the other 99% of waste and wanton printing of money?

Only slightly less disastrous is Obama's ex nihilo tax-the-hell-out-of-business something-for-nothing government-can-help-with-everything approach. Two examples:

1) In a forum I heard a questioner complain about how businesses were going overseas and what would he do about it. Answer: tax the businesses mercilessly. What?

2) Also, in his book he says that the privatization of Social Security (here's another idea, let's let people just keep their money) will create losers. Well, we can't have that can we! The problem is the non-privatization of Social Security also creates losers, except the loser is the person who actually created the wealth.

I did the math: if the taxes I collect out of my worker's checks were invested, they would each retire with about half a house. I wonder how that measures up with what they will (might) get back from the Social Security program.

I'm still doing a lot of reading and studying. It may not seem like it, but I may still come around to Eric's point of view. I admit that other theories might turn out to be right.

Of course, it hardly matters what the candidates are saying now. It's all a farce. The real objective is to part the commoners from their labor (through inflation/printing of money, income tax, and lawsuits). There is a class of people who are not producing anything of value. The system is designed to protect that group and assure their lifestyle.

Imagine a settlement where only barter is allowed. Let's say a complex community of 10,000 people. A man walks into the pie shop. Give me two cream pies, please, he says. The pie shop owner asks what he has in value to give in exchange. Oh, nothing, he says, I'm on my way down to the lake to relax for the day, I don't really have anything to trade.

I don't think a reasonable person would give him the pies. In fact, I think this individual would be driven out of town on a rail in short order because the deception would be readily apparent. His sloth would be on display for all to see.

The system of paper money we have currently is extremely adept at hiding this man behind layers upon layers of exchanges that we accept as fair. In fact, the entire banking system is a farce designed to make a switcheroo of valuable and tangible goods for paper. But it's paper that can be in turn switched out for other goods. It's like a game of musical chairs, but every round a commoner is dropped off into poverty. Four lawyers retire to Villas in Italy while four hundred workers are ruined.

Even if that hypothetical town had gold-backed money it would be the same deal. Only slightly less transparent.

I'm not talking about welfare moms here, or food stamps. While I believe those programs would be better administrated by private charities run on donations, I am talking about the bailouts. Those are one thousand times worse.

I was reading yesterday about the Fed "pumping 70 billion into the economy". Really? That's amazing! They left their offices for the day, rolled up their sleeves and created 70 billion worth of goods that could be used to tangibly improve the lives of their fellowmen?! Why these must be gods on earth! That's a real fish and loaves miracle.

Hey, I'll bet the value of the dollar will go up now.

On the other hand, BTP has accomplished at least this one thing: I got one welfare mom off the dole. She just bought her first house this last month. I think I just got more actual work done than the Federal Reserve did by electronically creating 70 billion dollars of fake money.

OK, now another mental exercise. Make a short list of all the actual tangible things you have in your life that make it better (goods and services). I'll start:

• house
• electricity
• dishes
• running water
• car
• clothes
• haircut
• toothpaste

All of those things were produced by labor. If the government cut you a check for $200,000 and you went out and spent it on those types of goods and services, does that change where they came from? Where did that money come from? It came from Blue Table Painting. I have less of those things so that you can have more. My studio is smaller, my paycheck is smaller, my house payment is smaller, I can't afford to go to the dentist.

.

But I should stop complaining because I still have it pretty good, right? Tempting, but no.

.

It's because whenever my business is suppressed by taxation, it by association suppresses all the people that work for the company. And that really bothers me.

.

Real wealth can only be created by honest work.

.

By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread until thou return unto the ground.

Twin-Linked Devourer

This is a really popular weapon loadout for a Carnifex. It takes all four upper limbs. Two twin-linked devourers put out a ton of shots, and they get to re-roll to-wound.

Anyway, a client sent me this picture. It's made from the crushing claw arm from the carnifex kit, and a few devourers and green stuff. Very nice.

At Adepticon 2007 I saw a guy who made a quadrifoil gun to represent two twin-linked devourers.

Tax Cuts Explained

[A friend of mine sent me this. Not sure on accuracy, but I found it interesting. Can anyone shed light?]

Because it's the election season, let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.The fifth would pay $1.The sixth would pay $3.The seventh would pay $7.The eighth would pay $12.The ninth would pay $18.The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until one day the owner threw them a curved ball (or is that a curved beer!). "Because you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men ...... the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our Tax System works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

.

[Later that night I got this following response from a Blog Reader]

Shawn,

I thought you might enjoy the following site:http://www.factcheck.org/
It is one of the few sites I have been able to find that seems truly interested in facts rather than political party line.

.
I thought your example of taxes was very interesting. Let me ask you a question.In your example, men 1-4 drink for free.The tenth man, the wealthiest, leaves because everyone beets him up.It's been my experience that the tenth man doesn't walk away and drink somewhere else. He buys the bar and takes his friends' money.I think currently that too much of our income goes toward useless taxes, by us I mean those of us in the ubiquitus middle classSo I can appreciate the spirit of your example.However, the moral of your story seems to be that if we don't play nice with the wealthy, they may find greener pastures to distribute their bounty.

My question is that as citizens, people who have inherently profitted from our free market society, doesn't moving that money over seas and avoidence of those taxes constitute an act of rebellion, even treason?

.

Don't miss-understand me, I'm not saying people who handle their money well are crooks. It just seems to me that if I have drawn the correct lesson from your example, I am supposed to act in such a way so that the wealthy among us aren't frightened into avoiding their national duty in the form of taxes, while I, not being of that august body, will be left to catch the bag.I have moral issues with this assumption since it effectively holds the wealthy to a different set of rules than the rest of us.Can you help me with this?

.

I'm working through some difficult decisions in this election and I would enjoy hearing what you have to say on the matter.

[And here is my response, off the cuff]

When I post things it's not so much a statement as a question.

I usually relate things to my own business. Quite simply, I think that those with means and ability will avoid paying their taxes after a certain point. As far as I can tell, our forefathers were throwing tea in the harbor over 1% taxation. I've found a few instances where the rebellion against paying taxes was over paying ANY at all.

Back to my business. My business has grown tighter. Because of the huge amount of taxes I both collect and pay to the multitude of government agencies I had to shrink the size of the studio. Ironically, a group of tax accountants took over the vacated portion. They're a great bunch of professionals, but it's a bit ironic that they grew while I shrunk. The fact is, that they don't produce anything, except fill out papers to be sure that the money from individuals and businesses flows smoothly into State coffers.

If these burdens were lifted, the money would not disappear. I could afford a better space, give my workers a raise, hire new workers and/or generally improve and expand my business.

My basic problem with "liberal" philosophy is that they seem to think that you can get something for nothing. I always snort in derision when I hear "these tax cuts are going to cost the government X dollars". That's like saying running from a mugger is going to cost him the $20 in your wallet. If I protest having my crops hauled off by force and threat, their lower lip starts to quiver, "but think about the poor." Dammit, I do think about the poor. I pay more to charity than to taxes. What I'd really like is to decide how to use my own money; how to best administrate it.

.

The current Republican administration is ten times as bad, since they have done even worse by printing trillions of dollars to finance their wars. I believe it is a horrific betrayal of the american people.

The supposition is that a distant politician is going to be a better, more just, more moral administrator of the crops than the person who actually planted them, harvested them, sacrificed for them. That if the government doesn't do it by force, common citizens won't do it.

I heard a clip from Hillary Clinton lamenting a single mother who just had her hours cut. I think that's funny because if there is an increase in the Payroll Tax, the absolute first thing I'm going to do is cut Sarah's hours. Fact: right now I can't afford to give my workers a raise because of the tax burden.

The other supposition of the philosophy of the left is that businesses don't like profits. If we tax the hell out of corporations they will just take it out of the profits. That's just plain silly. Every time you buy a product, like say a light bulb, part of the cost you pay is for the various taxes on the business that makes them (not to mention the lawyers and liability insurance).

In short, you can't get something for nothing. There's no such thing. The government can't spend a single dollar without first taking it from someone else. This whole business of redistribution or the printing of money creates only an illusion. The only way to create real wealth is to actually roll up your sleeves and create something.

An entrepreneur actually creates something that wasn't there before. I am a toymaker. Models arrive in pieces and leave as an improved product. I create something.

More to come.

[And here is a further response from my friend again]

Ah,That makes more sense.

Discussing money is both more simple and entirely more complicated than it first apears (particularly where taxes are concerned.)I would say, rather than stating that the left feels that they can create or get something out of/for nothing, that my issue comes more from the fact that these ideas seem to come from the idea that I am supposed to help everyone, that my money and my taxes should be used to provide for all the less fortunate and improve everyone's quality of living.

We absolutely need to make sure that certain basic needs are met, but we also need to make sure that as a country we are encouraging the less fortunate to stand up and become more fortunate. I can't tell you how angry it makes me when I see polititions aproving billion dollar programs that don't appreciably change my quality of living and yet increase my taxes simply to give someone else an increase in there's for no cost to them.

.

Based on what you've said I'd think Obama is your man. Not only does his program stand to cut taxes for most americans, he also is endorcing a pay-as-you-go initiative which would force congress to cut from one existing budget line if they choose to spend more money after the first budget is aproved.If I could find a phiscally responsible liberal, or a socially concious conservative, I'd vote for either of them.

.

The problem I'm finding is that candidates now are so tied up with party lingo and platforms that those parties define them to a large degree. I'm not even asking for a tax cut (though god knows I'd like one.) I just want someone in office who will use my money responsibly.

[My response back]

Dear M,

I think I am with you on this one. It's a sad, sad day when the democrats are starting to look like the fiscally conservative ones.

.

If McCain gets into office who knows what countries we'll be invading and fighting. After reading his book Faith of my Fathers it's clear he just does whatever the hell he wants.

.

I'm still doing a lot of reading and studying. It may not seem like it, but I may still come around to Eric's point of view. I admit that other theories might turn out to be right.

.

Of course, it hardly matters what they're saying now. It's all a farce. The real objective is to part the commoners from their labor (through inflation/printing of money, income tax, and lawsuits). There is a class of people who are not producing anything of value. The system is designed to protect that group.

.

Imagine a settlement where only barter is allowed. Let's say a complex community of 10,000 people. A man walks into the pie shop. Give me two cream pies, please, he says. The pie shop owner asks what he has in value to give in exchange. Oh, nothing, he says, I'm on my way down to the lake to relax for the day, I don't really have anything to trade.

.

I don't think a reasonable person would give him the pies. In fact, I think this individual would be driven out of town on a rail in short order because the deception would be readily apparent. His sloth would be on display for all to see.

.

The system of paper money we have currently is extremely adept at hiding this man behind layers upon layers of exchanges that we accept as fair. In fact, the entire banking system is a farce designed to make a switcheroo of valuable and tangible goods for paper. But it's paper that can be in turn switched out for other goods. It's like a game of musical chairs, but every round a commoner is dropped off into poverty. Four lawyers retire to Villas in Italy while four hundred workers are ruined.

.

I'm not talking about welfare moms here, or food stamps. While I believe those programs would be better administrated by private charities run on donations, I am talking about the bailouts. Those are one thousand times worse.

.

I was reading yesterday about the Fed "pumping 70 billion into the economy". Really? That's amazing! They left their offices for the day, rolled up their sleeves and created 70 billion worth of goods that could be used to tangibly improve the lives of their fellowmen?! Why these must be gods on earth! That's a real fish and loaves miracle.

Never Say Argh

[Here's a kind note from a client that brightened my day]

Shawn,

Ok I'll have them sent out asap.

Thank you very much for Hard work and trying to make these project run as smoothly as possible, I think you and your team a BTP are a really wonderful set of folks and you have an awesome product. It's really a good feeling from a client point of view to know that even if there are problems with a project your willing to go the extra mile to make me feel satisfied.

Being a cable guy myself, and coming from an environment that is usually thankless no matter how much work I put in. Its extremely gratifying to see someone work as hard as you do. I just wanted to thank you in my own way. I hope the email helps for when your in those crappy spots and everything in you yells "ARGH"!

--Luke

That's Pep

Hey, here's my new favorite song for the week:


Here are the lyrics:
vigor vim vitality and punch
the ability to act on a sudden hunch
nerve to tackle the hardest thing
feet that climb and hands that cling
a heart that never forgets to sing
that's pep (3 times)

sand and grit in a concrete base
a friendly smile on an honest face
a spirit that helps when another's down
knows how to scatter the blackest frown
love's it's neighbor love's it's town
that's pep (4 times)

say "i will" for you know you can
look for the best in every man
meet each thundering knockout blow
come back with a smile 'cause you know
you got the best of the whole damn show
that's pep (6 times)
you know thats pep


I used to listen to Devo a lot as a young man of about thirteen. Good memories.

Fifth Amendment and Busted!

A friend of mine sent me this link. It was quite educational.

http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2008/09/why-plead-5th.html

And then I found this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA

Forge World Order

I'm making a Forge World Order sometime this week.

Forge World

If you would like to commission something, please contact me for a quote. Advantage to you: you get free Express shipping. FW is good about getting Express orders out right away.

I should note that this is ONLY for if you want to have us assemble and paint the model, too.

When giving a quote I will usually give two levels at least: Wargamer Standard or Extra Love (this latter is what Forge World models deserve).

If you want to get the price in USD, the exchange rate is $1.79 per British Lb. So, multiply by 1.79. Here's a converter:
http://www.dollars2pounds.com/

Note: the pic above is from the Forge World site. We didn't paint that.