Because it might be a while before next time

With the end of the semester looming hobby time has shrunk to 0. Since I won't get back to this for another week or two, and because I could use a warm-up exercise for the paper I'm writing, a little update. Had a bit of a shopping spree on Saturday, with the main pick ups being:

Doomreavers! When I hit my FLGS they had the UA too, so I got the Doomies. As I was heading home I realized that my "cheaper" option ended up costing me ~$5 more than the Great Bears would have, but such is life. I had a bit of a time putting them together. One pose in particular didn't want to mesh up, so I had to do some green stuff work to bridge some gaps. You can see where it is, if not exactly how it looks, here. There was a sizable gap between the forearm and the elbow that had to be filled.


I probably should have pinned more of them, but after pinning the UA's staff and drilling through his wrist I wasn't in the mood for more patching. I do rather like the models though, so hopefully they turn out well.

Other items on the shopping trip were Elmer's Glue All, which HMcT had mentioned and will hopefully work out better than plain old Elmer's has so far, a No Quarter back issue for what turned out to be a disappointing army collection article, and a pack of cheap brushes (12 for ~$1.25) to do basing with as the brushes I used to use were just horrible.

The Doomies are mostly primed now. I ran out of primer while still needing to finish up the front of the minis, so I plan to look for Duplicolor Sandable Primer which I hear is good stuff. I looked at my local K- and Walmarts, but to no avail. There are a couple auto supply stores nearby which I'll try, and if I still don't have any luck I'll look for plan b. With a week and a half left in the semester I have 3 papers, a portfolio of papers, and at least one final ahead of me, with two papers being due Monday, so sadly hobby time is on the shelf for now. The good news is that after the semester is over I'll have time to sit and work on stuff, which is good because I have a characterful conversion in mind after trolling the PP forums that I'm dying to get a crack at. I plan on trying out the Warstore when school is finished, so Kayazy and Strakhov at least are inbound in the future, and maybe some other goodies too.

Objectivist Round Up - April 29, 2010

Welcome to the April 29, 2010 edition of the Objectivist Round Up.

And now, an Ayn Rand quote:

There is a fundamental conviction which some people never acquire, some hold only in their youth, and a few hold to the end of their days—the conviction that ideas matter . . . . That ideas matter means that knowledge matters, that truth matters, that one’s mind matters . . . .

Its consequence is the inability to believe in the power or the triumph of evil. No matter what corruption one observes in one’s immediate background, one is unable to accept it as normal, permanent or metaphysically right. One feels: “This injustice (or terror or falsehood or frustration or pain or agony) is the exception in life, not the rule.” One feels certain that somewhere on earth—even if not anywhere in one’s surroundings or within one’s reach—a proper, human way of life is possible to human beings, and justice matters.

-- from the essay "The Inexplicable Personal Alchemy" in Return of the Primitive

And now, the carnival, which always reminds me that good people are out there, working and living and writing and filling the world with value.

Rory presents In which Rory recognises that which does not matter must truly slide posted at Mind To Matter, saying, "An exploration of the issue of the concrete values which constitute our day-to-day lives. Objectivism holds the pursuit of values as being a central moral concern - we must think hard and carefully about the values which will orientate our lives. But they are *orientating*, not a guarantee of the best decision in every particular case of potential value achievement - and that ought not to worry us."

C.W. presents Inflation and Economic Update, April, 2010 posted at Krazy Economy, saying, "Is the economy beginning to grow as the administration claims? What is happening with inflaiton. Things seem so stable right now. My update on current affairs."


Rachel Miner presents Movie Keepers posted at The Playful Spirit, saying, "I share movie recommendations for the younger set. This was much more difficult for me than the "Book Gems" post. I found it difficult to find examples that I could recommend without qualifications. I'm definitely interested if there are movies for young kids that others would recommend without reservation."


Ron Pisaturo presents Fettered Markets posted at Ron Pisaturo's Blog, saying, "When politicians, economists, and commentators depersonalize the idea of freedom, when they speak of free or unfettered markets but never of free or unfettered people, then freedom becomes easier for them to attack or more difficult for them to defend."


Edward Cline presents The Liberal/Left‘s Ventriloquist Dummy posted at The Rule of Reason, saying, "Former President Bill Clinton revealed his totalitarian bent during an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper on April 17, when he linked Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building in 1995 with current “anti-government“ rhetoric, rallies and demonstrations by Tea Partiers. It is almost surreal, listening to this vile, hypocritical, amoral person pontificating on the necessity for civil debate. His language was banal, but in its banality, lurked evil."


Diana Hsieh presents Murray Rothbard Versus Children's Rights posted at NoodleFood, saying, "My quick essay on the source of parental obligations in response to a nasty bit of rationalism by a prominent libertarian."


Ari Armstrong presents Everybody Draw Mohammed posted at Free Colorado, saying, "In order to protest Islamist death threats, offer moral support to those threatened, and help spread the risk of threat, I am participating in the "Everybody Draw Mohammed" campaign."


Paul Hsieh presents Permission to Survive posted at NoodleFood, saying, "My latest OpEd at PJM was on what Ayn Rand called the "ultimate inversion", where the government can do what it wants, whereas ordinary citizens need permission to do anything they want."


Paul Hsieh presents Spider posted at NoodleFood, saying, "Why "Spider" is my favorite episode of the miniseries "From The Earth To The Moon"."


Rational Jenn presents Homeschooling a Gifted Kid? You're Selfish! posted at Rational Jenn, saying, "A recent article about homeschooling scolded parents for removing their kids from schools that needed them. I was both irritated with the article and really happy to see some of the response the article received from commenters."


Rational Jenn presents Cultivating the Virtues Podcast #2: Temperament posted at Cultivating the Virtues, saying, "The second podcast by Jenn and Kelly focuses primarily on Temperament. We also made some changes to improve the quality and aesthetics of the podcast (thanks to our producer/editor Brendan!). Enjoy!"


Gideon Reich presents Everybody Draw Mohammed Day posted at Armchair Intellectual, saying, "My entry for everybody draw Mohammed day."

Jim Woods presents Who are Parents to Decide About Their Child? posted at Words by Woods, saying, "Parents have a choice to make; either defer to the opinions of the public educrats who fail to account for individual variances, or use independent judgment to focus decisions upon the requirements of your own child."

Earl Parson presents Mohammed Boobquake Cartoon posted at Creatures of Prometheus, saying, "In defense of the First Amendment, I present my cartoon of Mohammed and Sedighi (the Iranian prayer leader) watching coverage of BoobQuake on CNN."


Earl Parson presents A Small Lesson in Leadership posted at Creatures of Prometheus, saying, "A true anecdote illustrating a lesson in leadership."


Roderick Fitts presents Part 4: Moral Sanction posted at Inductive Quest, saying, "Part 4 deals with my view of Objectivist moral sanction, and discusses my disagreements with Kelley's view of aid, sanction, and his participation with the libertarian movement."


Mike Zemack presents Directive Number 10-289: From Fiction to “Fundamental” Reality posted at Principled Perspectives, saying, "Obama's agenda amounts to a slow-motion Directive # 10-289"



That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Objectivist Round Up using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Share


Technorati tags:

objectivist round up, blog carnival.

Podcast #2 is up!! Temperament!!

Here’s the second podcast! Woohoo!

The format for this time is:

* Situation of the Week (by Kelly)
* Topic: Temperament (begins around 4:54)
* Q&A (begins around 28:17)

Yes, we went REALLY long on our topic, partly because it’s a favorite one of ours, and partly because we forgot to watch our time! (Chalk that second reason up to our learning curve.) We were much more vigilant in our subsequent recordings, so we hope you won't hold our blathering on against us. :o)

Brendan did an absolutely AMAZING job of editing our podcast! He fixed the extreme left-right-stereo problem (which couldn’t have been avoided for the first podcast due to some of the technical problems we had recording the first podcast). But it sounds MUCH better. He also made our music sound fancy, and don’t miss the section with Morgan, Ryan, and Livy, just before the Q&A begins! We know that our sounds are still very poppy (hard P sounds, for instance), but we changed the position of the microphones beginning with the third podcast, so hopefully you’ll find that this is less noticeable beginning next time.

Our plan for now is to release a podcast about once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday. So check back next week for Podcast #3!

A more deliberate blogging after a paper has been finished

So it turns out it isn't as easy to mill herbs and blog simultaneously as I'd thought it would be. It happens I suppose. If the Khadoran machine rolls on, so too must the glyph making machine.

To expand on the game from Thursday a little more, here are the list I used and the one I'm guessing EV used. I made sure we knew what points total we were playing beforehand. We went with 25 because I wanted to see how a smaller game worked.





pSorscha + 6
Kodiak - 8
Wardog - 1
Greylords - 4
Widowmakers - 4
Max WGI - 6
UA - 2
Rocketeer - 1
Kovnik Joe - 2
Widowmaker Marksman - 2

pDeneghra - 5
Stalker - 4
Some combination of 3 bonejacks - 12
Skarlock - 2
Max Bane Thralls - 8
2 Bloat Thralls - 4

I have a real problem telling the bonejacks apart. Their silhouettes are all the same save for a slightly different mouth. I keep thinking that with time I'll recognize them easier, but I'm still waiting for that to happen.

As I mentioned in the last post, I was trying a bunch of new stuff with my list. I wanted to run a single jack and all the new pieces I have that I hadn't played yet. The single jack worked well enough and I never really felt starved for focus, but the Kodiak was again disappointing. I'm thinking this might have more to do with EV not using heavy jacks as much as anything, but I think next time it'll stay in the case and I'll take a Juggy instead. The news bits (wardog, marksman, rocketeer) were underwhelming. The marksman did what he's supposed to for the most part, but I left the Widowmakers stranded on a flank for most of the game. Combined with the Bane Thralls and their Stealth, I didn't get a whole lot of use of of the Widowmakers as a whole. Granted they popped a Bloat Thrall and took out some kind of bonejack, but they weren't as dominant as they have been. The Rocketeer did fine, but Stealth again limited his effectiveness. The WGI also got caught up in melee fairly quickly, so he only got off a shot or two.

The biggest disappointment was the wardog. I've been looking forward to using this since I got the model, and this probably worked against me. A bonejack got close enough to arc a spell at Sorscha, so I sent the dog in. I should have seen it coming, but the poor pup bounced off the jack. I considered recalling it, but I left it in melee with the jack, who promptly ate the dog and still arced spells onto Sorscha. I guess I've been too inspired by a "What has your Wardog killed lately?" thread on the PP forums, but I thought the dog was going to perform better. In the later stages of the game, I wished I had recalled it so it might still have been around. It (I guess I should start calling it she, since the scheme is based on a female) did pass a Tough check though, so there's that. She didn't pass the second one though, so she got sprayed to death.

Overall, I again felt the lack of dedicated melee troops. The WGI got engaged with the Bane Thralls quickly and didn't get to decimate them completely on the way in thanks to Stealth, which was the man(or rule in this case) of the match for sure. Time and again I forgot to take Stealth into account. You'd think I would have learned eventually, but not so much. EV did a better job of dismantling the WGI support structure of Joe and the UA Officer, so they ended up grinding against the Bane Thralls in the midfield instead of shooting everything in sight.

I used Sorscha's feat in a new way: clearing out swathes of troops instead of assassination. It helped to clear out almost all of EV's jacks and crippled his Bane Thralls, but Denny was left standing, or at least hiding behind a wall. This was the turning point of the game, but not in the way you'd expect. After I cleared out the middle, I took my foot off the gas. I started doing random stupid, if fun, things. I charged the Greylords into a surviving jack. I piled in on the Bane Thralls for a WGI gangbang instead of spreading them out to cover more ground. Then what ultimately lost me the game, I brought Sorscha up to Tempest Denny (and some WGI at the same time), leading to another WGI gang bang. Except by this time they'd lost the Officer and CMA, so even with a knocked down caster their axe to mouth was less than effective. I also only had two on her, so I guess it was more of a train-run than a gang bang, but whatever you call it things didn't go as I had hoped.

The end was a combination of poor play on my part and rules ignorance. I left Sorscha too close to the front and in range of a Denny charge. I didn't think it would be possible to charge while in combat, but that's probably my 40k background showing. I wasn't sure it worked like that, but I let EV get on with it because I shouldn't have put myself in that position in the first place. While he was poking many tiny holes in Sorscha I checked the book and didn't find anything about not charging while engaged, so chalk one up to not knowing the rules well enough. I had hoped that Denny's MAT 5 would help, but with a full stack of focus it didn't matter.

I took small consolation in the fact that I finally got a throw off with the Kodiak. Granted I bypassed the initial fist attacks and just did a power attack to pull it off, but it worked like a charm. I launched a Bane Thrall into Denny, which was satisfying. I didn't have anything to take advantage of the knocked down caster, but I was looking more to get the throw off than to capitalize on it.

Funny that I've come up with what is no doubt a long entry after a loss, while after a win I didn't write much at all. They say you learn more from a loss than a win, and this is the case here. I may well head out in search of a melee unit today, either Great Bears of Doomreavers. I think the Great Bears will see more use in more situations, but the Doomreavers are cheaper and not character units. We'll see if I get anything at all. As usual there's another paper (three actually) to write, plus it's rainy here so I wouldn't be able to prime on the off chance I got whatever I ended up with assembled and based. Now that I think of it, the odds of getting a new unit ready for priming the same day I get them is slim at best, so maybe it'll work out. I'd been considering going to my FLGS tonight for the open Warmachine night they run on Saturdays, but then I realized that I lack templates, and my lists are certainly template heavy. Of course my stuff isn't painted and I'm always hesitant to walk unannounced into a new situation anyway, so it probably wouldn't have come off anyway, but it was still a nice idea that isn't going to work. I plan on getting a Warstore order together when the semester is over, if not before, and I'll remedy my template situation then.

A quick blog before bed

Khadoran machine finally hit a snag yesterday. I'll do a fuller write up tomorrow, but the short version is I made a list to use the new bits I haven't used yet, tried running a single jack for the first time, and let my opponent back up when I had him under my heel. I left Sorscha too close to the front lines and got caught by pDenny with full focus, which means that even MAT 5 will hurt. Though I was upset with myself for letting go of the game like I did, I had a good time all the same and I did get to try out my new pieces. The Rocketeer did ok, but the dog and marksman were underwhelming. Tomorrow I plan on getting some quality painting in after I finish a paper. I'll probably polish off the Manhuntress and maybe Sorscha instead of plunging on ahead with the Winter Guard. The Manhuntress in particular is done but for a bit of detail work and painting the base, so I want to finish it off so I can cross another item off the to-be-painted list.

Varnish woes and future lists

Still no pictures of the finished mortar team. I have a can of matte varnish from way back when that I used over top of the gloss varnish, but it didn't cut the shine as much as I think it should. One day I'll end up at the hobby store and get some Testors dullcoat, which I hear is the way to go. Until then my unit remains finished and varnished, but still waiting for that final flat coat.

I'm mostly decided on painting the Winter Guard Infantry next. Having seen how effective they were in my last game I think they'll be seeing plenty of table time, and I'd rather get units painted that will get played than ones that will sit around. Not that I have many that will just sit around at this point, but the WGI are central to at least 3 casters that I have/plan to have in the near future (both Sorschas and pIrusk), I've seen how well they work with pVlad, and pButcher has Iron Flesh so they'll end up in his lists too. Current estimate is that the unit is 20% finished.

I've trolled around for local tournaments and found a 25 point steamroller tourney in not-so-local Fredericksburg next month. This set me off on a mini-frenzy of list writing as I've played battle box games and 35 point games, but no 25 point games. I wanted to get some ideas down so I could prioritize what to paint if I made it down to this tournament. Of course work, school and hockey playoffs will likely conspire to keep me away, and Fredericksburg is much farther away than I'd thought, but even so it's not a bad idea to plan for the future. Most of the lists revolve around a single jack, generally a Kodiak, and a max WGI unit with UA, and Widowmakers. There's still some wiggle room in there that I'm debating putting the Great Bears into, but since I don't have the models that makes me hesitate to do so. I'd like to get a couple scenario games in with EV, not to mention actually getting my models painted, before I really start looking at tournaments, but the itch is definitely there.

A Little Tease

Caught in a fit of painting frenzy on Friday, I have an all but complete unit. A tiny taste here.


I still have to finish the bases, but they're 95% finished. I had talked with HMcT about my indecision while painting, where I bounce between models constantly. He said he liked to do whole units from start to finish so that when he finished he had a squad done. I don't know that I'll ever take up that viewpoint, but it is nice to finally have a bit of Warmachine in the (nearly) finished column. More, better pictures when they're 100%.

First Cultivating the Virtue Podcast!

Our first podcast is live! We plan to have one up every week, now that we have worked out the major kinks. Yay for Brendan for helping so much. Here's the link:

http://cultivatingthevirtues.podbean.com/2010/04/16/podcast-1-welcome-to-cultivating-the-virtues/

Jenn and I are very excited; please give us a listen and let us know what you think!

Khador vs Cryx Battle Report

Had my third game this afternoon against EV, again a Cryx vs. Khador match-up. I took some pictures to do up a battle report, so I won't spoil how it goes to entice further reading. I finished green stuffing, basing and priming (mostly) last night, so I had the Winter Guard ready to go along with the Koldun Lord. I had a list ready to go but changed my mind on its composition when I was heading from school to EV's place. I changed from pSorscha to pVlad, mostly for Signs & Portents and his extra focus point, and swapped out the Wardog and Rocketeer for the Koldun Lord. These changes in mind, this was the list I used:





pVlad + 5
Destroyer - 9
Kodiak - 8
Greylord Ternion - 4
Widowmakers - 4
Max Winter Guard Infantry - 6
WGI UA - 2WG Mortar - 3
Kovnik Joe - 2
Koldun Lord - 2

I didn't marshal a jack with the Koldun Lord, instead using him to give a point to the Destroyer while just hanging out near by. Marshaling has worked well for me in the past, but I was using a MoW Kovnik to do the marshaling and also running three jacks. Since I only brought two this time, and the Koldun Lord doesn't have Drive like the MoW Kovnik does, I wanted the extra flexibility.

Hentai McTentacles ran a list something like this:
pAsphyxious + 6
Cankerworm - 5
2 Defilers - 10
2 Max Mechanithralls - 10
Min Bilethralls - 5
Necrotech - 1Skarlock - 2

That's what I see in my pictures, and what you'll see in a moment, but I'm only coming up with 27 points there. My list was 35 as that's what we've been playing since moving past battle box games. I have a call in to EV and will no doubt have an update before any ever sees this, but there it is all the same. To my credit I asked him about the lack of any flavor of Wraiths/shooting/incorporeal models, so he should have had plenty of prods if he forgot to field something.

EV won the roll and elected to go second. My setup:


I set up the Widowmakers in the woods for cover, otherwise everything was kinda piled in the middle. I tried to place the mortar where it'd have a good line of fire and kept the Kodiak back a little to make room on the front line, figuring I'd run it through the woods since it has Pathfinder. This is probably a good time to note the big hill in the middle of the board. We played it as open terrain with elevations, so it didn't cost extra to move on or around but you could still gain cover/elevation bonuses, and it would block LoS where appropriate.

EV's deployment was:


His bonejacks are way out on the flank, presumably to come in from the side and arc node it up. I'm not sure what it's called, but the lone model on the far right explodes when it dies. I found this out the hard/fun way previously, so I noted it's deployment in particular. Other than that, again a big pile of troops in the middle.

After the end of my first turn, things looked like this:


Basically I just moved everyone up. I ran the mortar onto the hill to get a better view of the battle field since it couldn't see a whole lot from where it was. I dropped some clouds with the Ternion just because I could. Vlad didn't have much to do, so he camped on all his focus. My plan at this point was to split up my templates, with the mortar on one side and the Destroyer on the other. The Widowmakers had a good field of fire, so I liked them where they were. I wasn't sure which way EV was going to go around the hill, so I stayed in the middle with good options to go either way.

After EV's first turn:



I don't know why this picture got rotated when I uploaded it, but you can see what's going on anyway.  EV  just came up the middle after me. I think his bonejacks got caught up in the woods, which would account for their off to the side placement. In previous games he had run these things at me full bore, so I had expected them to be much closer. He may have put Scything Touch up on a Mechanithrall unit, but I think he just camped on his focus as well.

A shot from the side to give some perspective on the lines as they drew together. We're on a 3 x 3 board (there's a 4 x 4 on the way for next week) so things are closer than might be expected after one turn.


At this point I saw the big collection of guys in the middle and hatched a plan. I decided to drop some mortars into the group, then move the WGI up and spray/CRA whatever was left. I had a vague notion of bringing the Kodiak around the right of the mortar and engaging the Cankerworm with it, but I thought I'd be out of range.

After my second turn:



Things went about as well as I could have hoped. You can see the big hole where lots of Mechanithralls and the Cankerworm used to be. I dropped S&P with Vlad, did the boosted attack speech with Joe, and just turned the WG loose on the middle. They advanced up the hill and shot 3-4 sprays, taking leaving what looks like 8 Mechanithralls where there had been 20 before. The Cankerworm ate two CRAs to the face, one from the WG Officer with 4 friends, the other from a regular grunt with 3 friends. I think I dropped a mortar or two on it before moving the WGI up as well. The net result of this turn was: bombards, sprays, CRAs, open field. I got a shot of the kill zone from above after I was done.


You can compare with the Cryx turn 1 picture to see the ground that got cleared around the WGI. This was just brutal for EV, though he still had plenty of guys for me to worry about.

After his turn 2:


He charged the remnants of the Mechanithralls up into the WGI. With Bob & Weave they had a halfway respectable defense, so he didn't get many with the charge. He also purged a Bile Thrall before the charge that took out two WG and dinged the Kodiak. The bonejacks moved up as I anticipated, but were mostly ineffectual.

A overhead view of the hill of death after his turn:


You can see the Scything Touch marker on one unit of Mechanithralls as well as the space the other unit cleared in front of it. At this point I was feeling pretty good. I had a bunch of WG left, who passed their command check with a 9, and a target rich environment just begging for more sprays. I was, of course, happy to oblige.

The battlefield after my third turn:


Again with the rotating images. More sprays cleared out the rest of the Mechanithralls, leaving one survivor. I walked up to one of the bonejacks and applied a little axe to face, taking out a few columns but leaving it largely intact. I dropped a mortar on Asphyxious to no effect, then put a couple CRAs into him. At this point EV conceded. I still had the Kodiak (kill some Bile Thralls), Widowmakers (more Bile Thralls) and Ternion (more sprays? maybe an ice cage) to go.

My casualties at the end:


5 Winter Guard Infantry and 3 points on the Kodiak, acceptable losses by any standard. There's a good reason for it, beyond rolling 4 dice with the WGI between Kovnik Joe and Signs & Portents. EV was only playing 27 points. Apparently he thought we were playing 25 points, which he would have still been off on, so it's no wonder his force seemed a little light. I told him not all fights are fair and he agreed, though he said he wished he'd known he'd be fighting uphill before the game was over. Considering I have an 8 point advantage on him, it isn't surprising that I did so well. WGI were the unit of the game in a big way. The massive sprays and CRAs they put out were just brutal, clearing the middle of the board of everything in front of them. I was pleased with the Koldun Lord, even though all he did was run behind the Destroyer and give it a focus point. I wish he could do that and spray or ice cage, but it still worked as intended. The Kodiak didn't do much of anything, but that's because I didn't put him in a position to do anything. I may downgrade to a Juggernaut next time as the Kodiak hasn't bowled me over so far. I love the idea of the chain attack, but without a target that can survive its two initial fist attacks the chain attack is useless. Maybe in the next game EV will bring out his Cygnar or go with more heavy jacks and it'll get a chance to shine, but I'll probably just swap it out for the Juggy and a Rocketeer.

Blog Vacation: Destination Innisfree

I won't be writing on my blog for a while, and I wanted to let you know. I don't know how long a while may be. Could be 2 days and could be 2 months. I'll know when a while has passed by the way it feels to think of writing again.

I feel so overwhelmed by responsibilities. I feel strangled by the commitments I've made. I feel that my life has become a succession of details, and I've lost the feeling of living without a script. I have to go to co-op; I have to go to soccer; I have to write blog posts; I have to make podcasts; I have to teach my classes; I have to go to parties; I have to do all kinds of things. No one made me do them, and individually, I like them all. But put together, they make a sticky web out of my life, and I am the fly stuck in them.

So, I am busting out. I don't have to podcast for a while since Jenn's family is in town this weekend. I can spend all of co-op and soccer lying on a blanket, reading poetry and American history. I can walk to and from my classes barefooted and picking up dandelions. I can skip parties if I want to. I can go on a blog vacation. "I hear it in the deep heart's core" that I must do these things. I will let go of the things I can, and I will drape the things I cannot let go of with daisy chains. Here's my plan, summed up pretty darn well by Yeats:

THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

By William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

1892

What I've Been Reading Lately

I thought I'd report on the books I've finished so far in April.

From Colonies to Country by Joy Hakim

This is the third book in a series called The History of US. It is written for teenagers, but I think adults who want a broad look at American history would enjoy it as well. Hakim includes lots of primary sources, has a balanced outlook (neither liberal nor conservative bias, as far as I can see), and writes in a readable and enjoyable story-like way. I learned A LOT from the first three of these books, but I was fairly ignorant about American history to start with. I plan on finishing the whole series.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

This was my second Roald Dahl book (I also read Matlilda.), and I liked it just as much as the first. Dahl paints the most vivid images; you can just see what is going on perfectly in your head. He is so clever at making up interesting kinds of candy, and I love the characters! My favorite thing about this book is how just it is. Good people get good things, and bad people end up stretched or turned blue or sucked up pipes. Awesome! And he is so over the top. Nothing just happens. Everything explodes or dances across the page. I'm going to read all of his books for sure.

Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

These two books are about the family of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, the inventors of motion study and process engineering. They had 12 kids, who were all raised using lots of their efficiency studies, as well as a ton of love and fun and free-range parenting. The stories are funny, heart-warming, and interesting from an efficiency point of view as well.

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I've read this one a million times before (and loved it every time), but this time I read it out loud to Livy. She like it a lot, but some of the stories about animals made her sad (like when they had to trade in their horses for ones better suited for the prairie). She also cried A LOT when they had to leave Indian Territory after a year of building a life there. This book was an emotional roller coaster for her, but all in all we enjoyed it. We had also read Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy before. We've decided we are done with this series for a while, and we've started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. She's seen all the movies, and now she is enjoying finding all the places where the movie changed the book.

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Gatto is a former New York State Teacher of the Year and a huge advocate for privatizing education. He says that we need to stop talking about how to fix the public schools; they are not broken. They succeed incredibly well at what they were designed to do - homogenize the values of the population and teach us to be good little automatons. He is very honest about the terrible lessons he felt he taught to his students; he calls these lessons the hidden curriculum and says that he spent much of his time teaching them, not the surface curriculum. I don't agree with everything he says (for one thing, he espouse altruism), but his answer to the educational crisis is my answer - free market! Let parents decide the kind of education they want for their children.

Have you read any of these books? What are you reading now?

Where all paper progress stops

I saw it coming, but as usual was powerless to stop it. All work on my papers has halted now that I've figured out how to work the camera. More pics incoming, starting with some Sorscha.




A little clearer picture from the front, this time with the flash on. Two from the back now. The first one is without the flash as I think it shows the pre-blending blocking better, while the second is with the flash and just looks better in general to my eye.



Another Manhuntress, this time a little nicer looking than the last.

Some jacks now, Destroyer and Juggy. The Destroyer has been my best performing jack so far, so it's gotten a bit more love than the Juggy.


This is an admittedly horrible photo, but it gives a sense of the theme I'm going with for the army, the Fifth Border Legion. I liked the look of the Kodiak when doing my initial research, so I decided to go with that scheme for my whole army to set it apart from the hordes of red Khador. Little did I know, though I should have suspected, that the Fifth Border Legion would be a popular alternative to the basic red.

In progress Widowmakers with a bare metal and still to be green stuffed Marksman.

Here's a detail shot of the underpinning I used on the Wardog, Koldun and Marksman. With the tiny foot tabs, some way of holding the model to the base is required and I think this is a nifty solution. I may try just running a pin from the foot through the base later, but this way provides both horizontal and vertical support, as opposed to only vertical if I were to pin through the foot.


A very in progress shot of Winter Guard Infantry. This unit will ultimately grow by another two models when I get some more Rocketeers, though I'll wait on that until I actually try them out on the table. I had initially discounted the WGI as cannon fodder, but having read more about them I see they can be a potent unit, capable of dealing with any situation. As such, I've started building lists around them. They're fairly expensive at 13 points when fully kitted out, meaning UA, 3 Rocketeers and Kovnik Joe. I'm mitigating that somewhat by only having the one Rocketeer, but 11 points is still a heavy jack and a jack marshal. I'm very curious to see how they perform, and hopefully I'll find out on Thursday. This is a good visual mark of how much work I have to do to get them to my self-imposed standard of only using primed models. Though it isn't super clear, the Rocketeer still needs to be based and green stuffed, while the standard bearer also needs green stuffing.


The Wardog. I really like this little guy, mostly because it reminds me of a friend's dog. As noted before I'm planning to paint it up like said dog, though that's obviously a ways away still. I think I'm going to change the armor scheme a little bit, making the headguard red and the chestguard green. When I take some better steps towards painting the dog up I'll post a picture of my real-life model for comparison.

The mortar. I've mostly decided to use the spotter as a test model, both for final color selection and techniques. Blending hasn't begun anywhere yet, but the spotter will be my initial subject.


A shot of the full army I'll probably use on Thursday. This is again a helpful visual on how much I need to get done before Thursday to meet my requirements. It's raining today, so no priming just yet, though maybe it will have stopped by the time I get off work. Papers still loom though, so that may not be enough even. I've certainly wasted enough time photographing and blogging as it is.


An alternate option for Thursday and the future, replacing the Ternion with a Widowmaker Marksman and a Koldun Lord. The Greylords have worked well for me so far, but I think the Koldun will be good for the Destroyer and the Marksman will be a beast on his own while also letting the Widowmakers shift around with his special rule (Swift Hunter I think).


Hopefully that's all for now, I really need to do some school-related writing. Still, it's good to get some pictures up after being thwarted by the camera for a couple weeks.

Paper progress provides photographing potential

First things first, just noticed Blogger has a spell checker. Not that I think I've made any glaring errors, being a writer and all, but it's good to have a safety net.

Having made some good progress on my papers, I took a minute to give photographing another shot. This time I thought I'd try zooming in while in macro mode and behold, success! These are poor quality, but I hope they'll get better with time. The camera battery ran out after these two shots, so this is all I have to work with at the moment, but now that I've figured out how to get the camera to focus on miniatures there will be more forthcoming.




Both these models are works in progress, so they look somewhat fugly. Then again I'm not a great painter, so they'll look fugly when they're done too. Only way to get better is practice, right?

First up is pSorscha:


Mostly she's just basecoated, though I've started blocking in the red for an attempt at blending. The hat and cloak trim are drybrushed up and more or less done. The blocking is more apparent from behind, but with the camera battery recharging just now rear shots will have to wait. I've attempted some scenic base sculpting with green stuff here. It didn't turn out quite like I hoped it would, but it's a start. I feel kinda bad experimenting on something like a caster, but you have to start somewhere. Plus I have another pSorscha model, the variant where she's swinging her hammer, so I'll have something to fall back on.

Next is the Manhuntress:


This is a really bad shot, but gives some sense of what I'm doing. The camera had a hard time focusing properly, so you take what you can get. Like Sorscha, she is mostly basecoated but has more finished areas thanks to all the fur. I think I'm going to make her a blond, though that may make the head too light with blond hair, pale skin and a light grey hat. We'll see how it works out.

So this is my first successful, or mostly successful, photo session. One big step taken in getting the camera to work, but still plenty to go on getting good looking pictures. At least it's a start. Camera settings used: Nikon Coolpix camera, macro mode, flash disabled, zoomed in.

Pinning practice

Found the Blood Angels codex at my FLGS this weekend, only took three tries. I enacted my master plan when I saw it was in and picked up a deck box (red of course), a Widowmaker Marksman, and a Koldun Lord. Because I have two papers due this week, I spent about two hours last night and another hour this morning assembling models. The bad result of this is that I haven't gotten a whole lot done on the papers. The good result is I got a lot of pinning experience in, relative to my pinning experience previously. Both the solos have the single-foot tab that PP seems to be going with for new minis, so I reused my Wardog basing tactic by drilling a hole in the tab and cutting a notch in the base, which worked well once again.





The Koldun Lord is mostly two odd pieces: the legs and the body/cloak. The real oddness is in the angle that the two meet, wherein the legs nuzzle right up against the cloak, and that the cloak is a little too long. If you get the body halves to meet up tightly so there's no gap, then the cloak reaches further down than the feet which makes attaching the base a challenge. If you make sure the cloak plays nice with the base, then there's a big gap in the body. Add in a sparsity of contact area between the halves and you have a mini that's a bit of a challenge to assemble. In the end I employed another Wardog tactic of running a pin between the two halves of the body. This didn't work nearly as well as it did with the Wardog, but it did provide some extra stability, which was the point in the first place. I had to strike a balance between the cloak and the body, so there's a bit of a gap between the body and the cloak which will require some green stuffing, but more on that later.

The Marksman's gun was an ill fit, much like the Rocketeer's rocket (which I'll get to in a minute), so I bit the bullet and decided to pin it. The available pinning surface isn't that big, which made me reluctant, but the only way to learn is by doing. It turned out really well and the hands are flush against the body. I've been reluctant to do this kind of pinning in the past, but this victory gave me confidence to give it a go with the Rocketeer.

Though no one is reading this now, there might be some in the future, so future astute readers will recall that I got a Rocketeer in my last batch from my FLGS. When I was assembling that batch, I had a hard time getting the rocket attached. Like the Marksman, the rocket and hands were a separate piece that attached at the wrist, a small contact area and a pain to pin thanks to the psuedo-pin nubs on the hands. I tried to just glue it in, but it just wouldn't stick. I left the rocket unattached at the end of that session and came back to it this morning. Since the Marksman had worked out so well last night, I thought it'd be nice and quick to pin the Rocketeer this morning. Turns out I was overconfident. Though the assembly is the same as the Marksman, I had a bear of a time pinning the rocket on. I drilled four holes in the rocket before I finally got one that would work well. Most of the problem I have with pinning these delicate bits is just getting the hole in the place I want it. I haven't figured out a good way of making a pilot hole yet. I've been just digging the point of an Xacto knife in and twisting it around, which is murder on the blades but kinda-sorta-somewhat-not-really effective. Still, it's the only tactic I have at this point. Once I finally got two holes to match up properly the rocket went on easy.

Way back when I first got started with Warmachine, all of a month ago at this point, I knew that HMcT had some Khador he wanted to get rid of, so I did some reading about Khador in preparation. This was when I was still getting back into gaming, hopefully a topic I'll post on eventually, so I wanted to get some pewter in hand to get painting. Reading about effectiveness of models and also taking into account which models were visually appealing to me, I got a MoW Kovnik to get back into the swing with. This was a mistake on two fronts. First, HMcT had a Kovnik in the collection that became mine, so I have two now and I'm not sure I'll ever play in a game big enough where I'd want to field both. Second is that the Kovnik, like all MoW, comes in many tiny pieces. I cleaned all the pieces, but assembly was intimidating and I soon had HMcT's collection to occupy myself with. The result is that the Kovnik still sits in his blister, unassembled. Having had this extended pinning practice, I think I'll go back to the Kovnik much sooner than I would have otherwise as I feel more confident now that I'll be able to pin all the stuff that needs pinning. I'd still like to get some two part automotive epoxy for assembly though. I had some years ago that I partially assembled a GW dreadnought with that I haven't been able to rip apart despite my best efforts. Pinning plus the epoxy would be a solid bond, which is all but required with the Kovnik. If I get it together, not only will I have conquered a model that put me off previously, but I'll also be able to paint a model that appealed to me initially and have a Kovnik that fits my paint scheme as well.

Now I have a bunch of green stuffing to do. The bases of the Marksman and the Koldun Lord need to be filled and there are gaps to address on Kovnik Joe, the Winter Guard officer, and the Koldun Lord. I also need to do some minor repair/patching on the Rocketeer where my drilling went awry. Since my last post I based all the last batch, except the Rocketeer, and got some paint on the Wardog and some Winter Guard. I have a game with HMcT on Thursday and I had despaired of having my new arrivals ready, at least good enough by my standards of based and primed, but with the work of the last dozen hours or so I'm feeling better about the chances. I need to write now (papers, not blogs), but when I break for lunch/inspiration I'll do the green stuffing, then hopefully I can prime tonight or tomorrow to have all my new pieces ready for Thursday. I'll also need to do some list bodging to account for the new solos, mostly looking to swap the Koldun Lord in for the MoW Kovnik. Maybe I'll get some pictures together too, and I'm going to try and bring a camera on Thursday to try and get a battle report together, which will be a new experience for me.

Breastfeeding and the Paleo Child

This post is going to do two things. First, I am going to tell you why I think breastfeeding (especially, "extended" breastfeeding) is a perfect match with the paleo lifestyle, both from the perspective of the baby's health and the mom's. Then, I am going to provide a fairly extensive series of links so that you can look into this further, especially if you want to see lots of references for the claims in the first part.

First, let me say that I know that not all mothers are able to breastfeed. If a mom *cannot* breastfeed, then I am so happy that we have formula so that her baby can continue to thrive. I would suggest that anyone who might need formula and is into paleo eating look at the formula recipes from the Weston A. Price Foundation: http://www.westonaprice.org/Recipes-for-Homemade-Baby-Formula.html. I do not endorse their breastfeeding advice or all of their suggestions for baby's first foods. Their stance on the benefits of breastfeeding is not vigorous enough, and their suggestion for adding foods at 4 months is horrible. Only look at the recipes!!

However, I think that the number of mom's who truly *cannot* breastfeed is really small. Most people who give up breastfeeding saying that they couldn't are moms who didn't get enough knowledgeable support, got poor support, or didn't want to breastfeed enough to work to solve problems. Breastfeeding, when it goes well, is easy as pie. However, it doesn't always go well, and those are the times when lactation consultants, experienced moms, a supportive and fully convinced partner, and a lot of patience are required, if the mom wants the breastfeeding relationship to continue. When special circumstances, like returning to work or dealing with an illness in mom or baby, crop up, creativity is required. But breastfeeding is possible in all kinds of crazy situations, if the mom is motivated and properly supported.

So, why is breastfeeding so compatible with the paleo lifestyle? Because, just as our bodies evolved to require fats and meats and veggies and all that other awesome paleo food, the bodies of our young evolved to require mother's milk. Female human bodies evolved to make the ideal food for our children out of all those awesome paleo foods she was eating. By breastfeeding, we are giving our children and our own post-partum bodies what they evolved to need. Below you will find several links detailing the benefits of breastfeeding for moms and babies.

We, as knowledgeable paleo eaters, should be suspicious of baby formula, even the homemade kind. We have learned in other contexts that pseudo-food, even if it keeps us alive, does not lead to optimal health. We know that sometimes nutrients we never dreamed of turn out to be important components of natural foods. So, no matter how much DHA companies add to formula, I suspect that the balance of nutrients, some which may not even have been discovered yet, will turn out to be better in real breastmilk made by mothers eating a paleo diet.

So, we pretty much know that breastfeeding is the way to go with little babies, but what about those weirdos who nurse toddlers? Why on earth would anyone still be breastfeeding an 18 month old? A two year old? A three year old? A four year old?

My first kind of tongue in cheek answer is that the time just sneaks up on you. One minute I was nursing a 5 month old baby, and the next minute she was 3 and asking me for breastmilk in complete sentences. It seems to me that you just nurse day to day, and when a child turns 3, it is not like a lightning bolt. She was nursing the day before when she was 2, and she wasn't much different the next day when she was 3. I hardly noticed how weaning happened for us because Livy did it so gradually and naturally. Over time she just nursed less and less, and one day, I realized she hadn't nursed in several days. For her, there was no day of weaning. We just both forgot to nurse one day.

In the section below, I am including several links about weaning age, nursing in traditional cultures, and what it is like to nurse an older baby. There are also links about the benefits to mom and baby of "extended" nursing. I put extended in quotes because according to anthropological evidence (including traditional cultures of humans and other primates) nursing a child well past a year is perfectly normal. One of my sources cites the natural weaning age of human children to be between 2.5 and 7 years.

I think that much of the resistance to nursing toddlers or even preschoolers comes from our cultural desire to hurry separation. Westerners, especially Americans, tend to put a high value on self-reliance and independence, as they should, but our culture mistakenly assumes that by hurrying up this separation process, we are creating more independent children. I think it is the same kind of assumption that drives excessive cardio exercise. We want strong hearts; it seems like getting our heart pumping a whole lot would give us that. Conventional wisdom is born. The conventional parenting wisdom works the same way. We want kids who can stand on their own two feet; it seems like getting them off the breast and eating grown up food early would make them more self-reliant. Conventional wisdom fails, again. As it turns out, meeting the evolutionary need of children to breastfeed until their immune systems are mature, until their birth weight quadruples, and until they are psychologically mature makes children healthier, smarter, and more socially adjusted. See links below for references for that big ole claim.

Even if it is good for toddlers, is it good for moms to keep nursing so long? Studies say yes. Breastfeeding longer lowers the risk of breast cancer, reduces the need for birth control by suppressing fertility (though not forever and in every circumstance, so read up on this before you just stop using that condom!), reduces diabetic mothers' insulin needs, and protects against osteoporosis. Plus, it makes parenting so much easier! That's another post, but trust me when I say that the release of oxytocin makes it much easier to be kind during a tantrum and easier to re-connect afterward.

Here are the links. I will try to give you an idea of what you will find in each one, but they are all packed with information. Some of the links are to the website of Katherine Dettwyler, an anthropologist who studies, among other things, the nursing habits of traditional human communities and primates. Some are the the website of Kellymom, my favorite place to find information about every aspect of breastfeeding, normal and problematic, with references. The other is to La Leche League, a breastfeeding support group led by parents, which was a help to me when I needed information. However, for serious problems, I recommend a lactation consultant. Mine saved our breastfeeding relationship. There are also a few pictures of breastfeeding pairs. I included them partly because they are so pretty and partly because I want images of breastfeeding, especially toddler breastfeeding, to be more common. Seeing normal healthy moms, nursing normal healthy children helps to make breastfeeding seem like the normal thing it is. Now we need lots of images of people eating bacon and meatza and bone marrow to normalize that too!

Natural Weaning Age in Non-Human Primates

Frequency of Nursing in Other Species

Recommendations for Nursing Duration by Pediatric Nutrition Experts -- I don't love some of the organizations, but I find their positions on duration of nursing interesting, none the less.

References in Katherine Dettwyler's Work (the above links) -- There is also an interesting comment at the top about why pediatricians and obstetricians never mention these studies.

Some resources Dr. Dettwyler recommends to learn more about child rearing in traditional cultures. -- Also a wonderful comment on how to take what traditional cultures do with a grain of salt

Do babies under 12 months self-wean?

Benefits of "extended" breastfeeding for mom and baby

Health hazards of not Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding's Benefits for Mothers

Another Article on Primate Nursing based on Dettwyler's Research -- I included this one as well as the first because it adds a little information and is footnoted. I included the first one because I enjoy Dettwyler's explanations.

Toddler nursing: What to Expect

Owen My Nursing Three Year Old -- a post from an old friend with a nice picture of toddler nursing

A Gorgeous Picture of a Toddler Nursing -- And an excellent demonstration of a good latch, as well. They should put this picture in a how-to manual.

If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them or at least go out and try to find an answer.

The World is Not That Bad

I wanted to relate a story that happened to me, Jenn, and Ansley Wednesday at the zoo. In the end, I'm gonna relate this to free range parenting.

We were all hanging around the hot dog stand, waiting in line to get some lunch. Ansley spoke to Charlie (who is 3), reached into her purse to get her wallet, and when she looked up, Charlie was gone. We all looked around for him, and when we didn't see him immediately, we started to get a little worried.

Now, let me be clear, Ansley was not letting a 3 year old have the run of the zoo. That wouldn't be free range; that would be stupid. And yet, children sometimes get lost. It happens A LOT, according to the zoo peopleguys.

So, we split up to look for him and to alert security that he was missing. He was gone for nearly 30 minutes, and let me tell you, we were pretty scared. In the end, a security peopleguy found him near the zoo train and brought him to us.

What I wanted to say was not that it is good and free range to let a 3 year old go all over the place in the zoo alone. We would never let that happen on purpose; we will be even more vigilant now, with Charlie and with our other babies. What I want to say is that the premise of free range parenting is right. The world is not a pit of evil pedophiles lurking behind every giraffe, waiting to grab up a cute little blond 3 year old. The world is filled with worried moms who helped us look and zoo employees who radioed his description and helped him get back to us.

It's not that a tragedy never happens. It's that a tragedy usually doesn't happen. I hope we never lose a child again, but if we do, I know that there is a nearly 100% chance that he will be safely found and returned to us by the decent people who populate the zoo and the rest of our neighborhoods.

Recent Gardening Tasks

Since I know you guys are dying to know how my gardening is going, I thought I'd tell you and post some pictures. Here's a list of the tasks Livy and I have accomplished recently:

• We mowed the grass for the first time this spring. This might sound easy, but that is because you don't know my policy about spring "weeds." I don't mow them until they are finished blooming. See, I hate yards. Grass is stupid. So I let mine go to weeds. And weeds are a pain and have to be mowed just like grass, but at least they bloom with pretty tiny flowers. So, I let the weeds bloom, and we enjoy the smells and the sight of that carpet of flowers. Then I mow for the first time, and it takes like 6 hours. Yuck.


• We weeded around the daylilies and the dahlias and the lilac bush and the Carolina Jessamine vine and any other plant just starting its springtime climb up from the soil. I also took a couple of minutes to wind the Carolina Jessamine into the chain link fence. I'm trying to train it to cover the whole side of the fence eventually.


Daylilies:


Carolina Jessamine (about to bloom):




We planted two pots of creeping phlox to sit on the church potluck table on the back porch.






We added soil to the potatoes that had grown 4 in. shoots. I was afraid I had killed off all the potatoes somehow, but now several pots have robust growth. I even found a few sprouts today in the pots I had almost given up on.
This is one of the pots where the stems grew up tall, and I covered them again. If you compare this picture to the day I planted them, you can see how much more dirt is filled in.




We kept the seeds of our spring garden wet. Everything has sprouted (beets, carrots, arugula, lettuce, spinach, and a mesclun lettuce mix), but the mesclun mix is really winning the race to our plates.

Blurry carrots:



Mesclun mix:




We cut the dead growth off of our fountain grass. We are gonna mulch with all that good straw, and we found dahlias popping up underneath the fountain grass.


We watered the onions, which are absolutely perfect. I would have grown them before if I knew they would be this easy.

And finally, my loropetalum. I just love this thing. Gorgeous reddish leaves all year long and pink blooms in the spring. And I love the shape as well, which is its natural shape, with no odious clipping.