And time to break my hiatus again! (In deference to the last post - I've started using FB more too.) Thanks to an agreement with a friend, I've started painting on the Dark Vengeance marines, and tried something resembling a Work in Progress set of photos.

I started with just the first half of the Tac squad - the Sarge, plasma gunner, and three normal tactical marines. Here they are disassembled and ready for priming - I've found it's the easiest way to get all the fiddly bits painted with my unsteady hands.

Primed and ready to go!

And here they are with the green.

Close up. Little hard to tell since the green is so dark.

After green came the bone.

After that was silver. (I also put some Mournfang Brown on the purity seal bases, but it was small enough I didn't get an in-between shot.

And the Sergeant.

After that, red.

The sergeant again.

And here they are assembled, mid-way through overall painting, to show the progress I've made thus far.

As you can see, a fair amount of work to do - the DA shoulderpads need white, the sarge needs pink on the face, the plasma coils need their treatment, his mini-shrine needs white and gold, and they need touching up and some wash, then highlighting. I'm pretty happy with how far along they are at the moment, though - it felt good to do some more painting.

As an aside, here's a shot to show you most of my last painting in the past eight months. The Photobucket where these are all hosted also has more shots of my workspace, more pictures of the progress, and a couple showing me at work and how much my hair's grown.

Any of you who stuck with me over the year and a half of no posts - thank you! I'm going to start posting more regularly - and painting more/ more often - and your patience will be rewarded.

Ta for now!

I hope this doesn't go the Facebook way

where I only log on every four or five months.

A fair amount has happened as of late, so I claim that it's warranted, in this case.

Last Saturday got married to my longtime girlfriend/fiancee. The wedding was beautiful, and the pictures are up on Facebook if any of you have me friended there. We then rented a cabin for a week up in the forest with no internet, and the vacation did us both a lot of good.

Now we're just dealing with the aftermath of trying to fit two people's accumulated stuff in a single apartment.

Hobby-wise, I've picked up the motivation to paint some more; picked up a squad of IG troops to see if I enjoyed painting them. (The jury's still out on it, but it'll be a LONG time before I start picking up an army, if ever.) My Dark Angels are still a mix of plastic gray, basecoat black, and a first coat of DA green; I finally took a leaf out of Drax' book and made myself a painting chart. Boy, do I have a long way to go.

I've more or less given up on the Wood Elves - they could be an interesting army, but I don't know that I really want to put the effort into mastering them. I'll hang onto them, and probably paint them at slow times, but my WFB heart really lies with the Tomb Kings - and now that we've got all sorts of new releases for them, it's a great time to pick up the army.

I've also been painting the minis for my friend's board game Talisman - they all came plastic gray, which was just too boring. They've taken the paint pretty well (I'm matching them to the cards they came with) and are looking fantastic - I just need a clear sealant so that they don't rub off too badly over time.

Still trucking along at Express Scripts - now a senior supervisor, and have been for a couple months. Still trying to get the hang of all the different responsibilities - customer service has a lot of aspects. It's not all fun, and games, and angry customers, let me tell you.

Well, that's it for now, I suppose. I'll try and get pictures up soon of anything I've done recently - but I know better than to promise, I suppose. The last one didn't pan out, after all.

Awake from hibernation.

It's been forever since I made a blog post. I need to change that; and have done so.

It's been a hectic time in general since my last posts. A fair amount has changed; I'm now happily engaged, with the wedding set for May 28th, 2011. I'm a supervisor at the call center for Express Scripts - they're one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the United States, and while the job is stressful, I love the work I do and the people I work with. Finally got my own apartment in August, and have been living alone for the first time ever, basically. I've been pretty active in the URPG; if you're part of it, my SN should be fairly obvious.

Now, for the interesting part to my few followers:

I've still been moderately active in Warhammer painting. I think I got a little burned out with the TOEMP, because it challenged me to do a lot more than I normally do, in a shorter period of time; and at that time, I was juggling a lot of stuff that has subsided. I've got another half squad of Dark Angels completely painted, have bought a land raider and am painting it, same with a drop pod (for the Dreadnought; he really has mobility issues if deployed with the rest of the army, so a drop pod will let me put him where he needs to be).

Still have my 2 squads of Deathwing, one kitted out with storm bolters and power fists, and the other with lightning claws/ thunder hammers and storm shields. The former will be a great squad to teleport in to important spots, while the latter works great assaulting out of the Land Raider Crusaider that I've basically got assembled. Bought a set of the Ravenwing bikers, and have assembled one - I'm experimenting with doing the painting first, then the assembly, so that I don't have to try and reach the brush into the tiny nooks and crannies, which worked amazingly well; unfortunately, it was also very time-consuming, and now I don't want to have to do the same for the other 5.

Still am enjoying the painting that I do with metallics, and the chances I've had to use washes; they really help bring the models to life with the small details they create. I wish I'd tried them sooner, because what I know now about painting would have really helped me get started with the hobby a lot better. (I'd also not have 1500 points of DA waiting for painting, a massive pile that's just frightening.) But I suppose that everyone has to start somewhere.

Anyway, I suppose that's enough life details for now. Thanks for still following me, those who did - I promise I'll post pictures of the models soon so you can see for yourselves what I've been doing.

State Press on the Pope hate bandwagon

Full article at http://www.statepress.com/2010/04/01/questioning-the-legacy-of-%E2%80%98people%E2%80%99s-pope%E2%80%99-john-paul-ii/

Article by Austin Yost, published in the State Press, the ASU campus newspaper on Friday.

On April 2, 2005, Pope John Paul II, a man hailed by many as “The People’s Pope,” passed away.

According to the BBC, a month after John Paul died, his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, started the process to have him entered into sainthood.

While it is taking longer than some people expected for Pope Benedict to approve a miracle that John Paul supposedly performed (which would allow John Paul to be beatified and placed one step away from sainthood), it seems to be an appropriate time to begin the necessary evaluation of the legacy that Pope John Paul II left behind.

During his tenure as the head of state of Vatican City, Pope John Paul II certainly did many admirable and praiseworthy deeds.

According to the BBC, he is often credited with contributing to the end of communist rule in Europe. His consistent disparagement of communism played a significant role in its widespread and overdue demise.

In March 2000, Pope John Paul II begged for forgiveness for some of the wrongdoings that the Catholic Church has been responsible for over its history, according to Christianity Today. Among other things, he apologized for the Crusades, the Inquisition, injustice toward women and the Vatican’s silence throughout the Holocaust.

The good things he did are certainly appreciated and applauded frequently, but some people seem to have forgotten some of the less desirable positions Pope John Paul II held and supported.

I don’t think it can be said he deserves the constant praise and admiration that is so generously awarded to him.

His unwavering position on contraceptives, even in the face of a seemingly abject crisis with a fast-spreading AIDS virus, has been responsible for the deaths, anguish and despair of millions of people in Africa. His position has had devastating and tragic effects on the lives of many people, and we mustn’t be allowed to forget that.

For someone who many people say worked tirelessly to bring people together, Pope John Paul II had some rather troubling and questionable things to say about the inclinations of homosexuals. In his 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons he wrote, “Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.” He deliberately further separated a portion of the world’s population, not for something they did, but merely for their natural and congenital inclinations.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II made Saint Thomas More the “heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians.” According to Christianity.com, Thomas More burned people alive in England for having the courage to own a Bible in English. Awarding Thomas More this title is rather ironic. To give him any recognition is to distort history and make a mockery of what actually constitutes as virtuous or praiseworthy.

The things Pope John Paul II did while he was alive will be remembered for many years. While I certainly concede that he did many good things, I refuse to forget about the abominable and iniquitous positions he held and urged others to hold.

Before we hop on the bandwagon for “The People’s Pope,” we need to evaluate Pope John Paul II’s life and the things he did and determine whether he really deserved the legacy that his supporters are attempting to build for him. I don’t think he did.

The pope's position on contraceptives is the same as the whole Church. It must be. Before we even get into the correctness of the position, let's look at the fallacies in the sentence:

His unwavering position on contraceptives, even in the face of a seemingly abject crisis with a fast-spreading AIDS virus, has been responsible for the deaths, anguish and despair of millions of people in Africa. His position has had devastating and tragic effects on the lives of many people, and we mustn’t be allowed to forget that.

As to the position; AIDS can be transmitted through many means, generally with contact from bodily fluids or the bloodstream. AIDS can be passed from one junkie to another by a shared needle, or from a mother to her child. Contraceptives wouldn't help either of these vectors for transmission. Sure, there are needle-recycling programs, and there's theoretically the option for abortion - but what if the junkies aren't in a town with a needle recycler, or the mother wants to keep her child? Sooner or later, it should be realized that these 'solutions' are simply addressing the symptoms rather than the disease.

Those people aren't dying because the Pope won't let them use condoms. They are dying because they're engaging in premarital sexual relations and illegal drug use. The Church has long taught against sins of the flesh, restricting the use of the sexual act to the marital union. Abstinence is infinitely more effective than contraceptives; contraceptives can break, but if they didn't have relations until they were married, it could only be spread from one person to their permanent partner; and most likely, they wouldn't even have gotten it in the first place.

For someone who many people say worked tirelessly to bring people together, Pope John Paul II had some rather troubling and questionable things to say about the inclinations of homosexuals. In his 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons he wrote, “Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.” He deliberately further separated a portion of the world’s population, not for something they did, but merely for their natural and congenital inclinations.

Think about it this way. If we accept the premise that Darwin was correct on evolution, homosexuality would be a counter-survival mutation. Homosexuals cannot naturally have children with each other; the first gay gazelles on the African savanna would also be the last. It's different with us because we are more than animals; though we are also creatures, we have our intellect, will, and conscience.

As he said, the inclination is not a sin; in fact, we are called to love all our fellow Man, male and female alike. However, there is a difference between brotherly love and sexual relations. We are all inclined towards sin; it's whether we give in to it or not that determines the evil we do. Homosexuals who have carnal relations are engaging in an act contrary to their species; they are perverting organs that were intended towards the furthering of the species into self-gratifying acts only performed for the enjoyment they get from it. He is not deliberately separating a portion of the population; in fact, he is likening them to ourselves with the inclination towards sin; but he is condemning those who, like the previous point, are deliberately frustrating what should be a creative act, and subverting it for self-gratification.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II made Saint Thomas More the “heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians.” According to Christianity.com, Thomas More burned people alive in England for having the courage to own a Bible in English. Awarding Thomas More this title is rather ironic. To give him any recognition is to distort history and make a mockery of what actually constitutes as virtuous or praiseworthy.

This one is just outright wrong. Thomas More was chancellor when 6 heretics were burned at the stake - and though he approved of it, they were burned for unrepentant heresy, not owning an English bible. And though it was in increase in number from the 30 that occurred in the century prior, 300 occurred during the subsequent reign of Mary Tudor, which almost would paint him as moderate. It was a common practice when dealing with heretics who refused to repent.

The reason that More crusaded against the English bibles that he speaks of was that they were poorly translated and theologically inferior to the ones they had available. (It should be noted that they were mostly the work of William Tyndale and swaths of it were incorporated to become the King James version of the Bible.) But putting all that aside - what does even his flawed premise have to do with statesmen or politicians, and his being a patron thereof?

So there really wasn't much in the way of truth to this particular expression of venom against the prior pope. Just like there isn't much truth in the allegations being leveled at our current pope regarding the sex scandals in the Church. These people are just using whatever ammunition they can find to level it against the Church. They really shouldn't be wasting their time, though; all the forces of hell will not prevail against its gates, so a few journalists with a chip on their shoulder don't have a chance.

The Non Nobis network

Non nobis, non nobis, Domine
Sed nomini tuo da gloriam.

Assuming any of you still read this blog - and I'd be surprised if any of you did - most of my followers weren't here in the US. We've been having a big furor- too big for me to reasonably break it down simply - about the state and future of US healthcare. The major bill in the Senate, which would have allowed, nay, required federal and taxpayer funding for abortions seemed to be inevitable - but it didn't pass the House, and a few brave, committed souls in both branches have said they'll do what they can to keep that provision of the bill out of any legislature. The blog that the title links back to should have enough of a breakdown recently if anyone is actually interested in it.

Anyways, I really should start posting more pictures of my various army paintings. I've been getting them done, slowly but surely, and not as fast as the TOEMP; but the hassle of taking the pictures, uploading them, formatting and posting was more than my lazy bum wanted to do. I'll fix that, soon - one of my company sargeants, my assault marines, my librarian, and some of my assault Terminators need their time in the limelight still.