Dia de los Padres
For Father’s Day I got a very nice little present: Seasons 4-7 of Star Trek: TNG. That completes the set for me.
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Last night my wife and I fell asleep on the couch, watching episodes of Seinfeld. We were exhausted from various trips (two family reunions, in each case a long drive with seven people in the van). I woke up in the middle of the night, our legs tangled and cramped. So I nudged her and got her to get up and go to bed. She said, “Shawn, don’t you dare sleep down here, get to bed right away.” To which I mumbled, “Sure thing dear, I’ll be right up.” Six hours later the dawn was breaking.
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Pretty much a lazy afternoon. Over the weekend I put together most of my Skorne. I’m behind the rest of the group who are in some cases nearly through painting.
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I went our for a walk. Oh, yesterday it was raining really hard; waves of marble-sized droplets surging like silvery ripples of wind-on-grain down the street. At the end of the street is a simple public park, just a lawn but sunken down with a drainage grate in the middle. It’s sunken about four feet. The whole thing was full, and there was a stream of water flowing into it. And there was a bubbling geyser in the middle where water was back-flowing into the now-a-pond. It was amazing. I headed out there to be sure that some neighbors houses weren’t flooding and to see if they needed help (no cause for alarm turns out).
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There were about eight neighborhood kids out there waiting for cars to come by and douse them as they plowed through the water.
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I am getting profound satisfaction from family life. Good food, too. My wife cooked me two meals today; biscuits and gravy for breakfast and steak and chile verde for dinner. Everything cooked and seasoned to perfection.
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Speaking of food, baby Willow is now eating solid food at six months old. Her current repertoire is rice and green pea mash. She is highly aware of the rest of us eating. She sees the food going in the mouth and she lunges forward to get some.
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Happy Father’s Day all.
Life and Liberty
“Give me Liberty or give me Death.” is no idle phrase. It is the seed of the idea of Freedom: liberty is more valuable than life.
The President’s Oath of Office is ever so short:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
So, when I hear a president say that he is going to keep the American public “safe” my response is:
“Well, thanks for taking care of the second most important thing (life). Now how is it going with the preservation of the Consitution? How vigilant are you that my civil liberties are being protected?”
40K Radio Live Show
Be sure to check out their down-load-able webzine. What a wargame magazing should be (not a catalogue cough*whitedwarf*cough)
Rogue Trader RPG
The Rogue Trader RPG was put out on the market by Fantasy Flight Games today.
It retails for $59.95
I can’t say much more about it. Today is free RPG day so you can get some free pre-made characters.
I can see it is a different system than Dark Heresy, which is a plus by my count since it seems simpler. Dark Heresy was rich… and complicated. Cumbersome.
Oh Great!
Hey guess what’s coming out in early August? The Ork Battlewagon upgrade kit. Included are the deff rolla and the lobba, among others.
Summer Breeze
It’s midnight. I’m down at the studio.
That pic is of my interpretation of an Eldar Falcon. All parts are magnetized. I made an option for a prism cannon, but the crystal looks like a giant carrot, so I’m going to change the color.
With the help of some earplugs I’m managing to sleep through the night. I’m a light sleeper: birds chirping, dogs barking, and other nocturnal shufflings wake me up and I can’t get back to sleep.
My mother-in-law has been in this week, which I mentioned before is yummy for my tummy. I’ve eaten great food breakfast lunch and dinner all week long. This morning it was scratch baked biscuits and gravy with some ice cold acai-berry juice.
The Hordes stuff is in and I should have my faction under the brush early this coming week. Renn and Brigh were getting in a practice battle today over lunch. Our goal is to have our factions all painted up and ready to roll by this coming Wednesday.
I have one (one) slot left for the Pandora special. I may have only sporadic communication over the weekend. If you want it, go ahead and send the $500 deposit. I will confirm and get things underway this coming week. It has been a real brainbuster to get these armies up to the points while keeping the cost reasonable, but I’ve got at least six good options cooking. It has been great for the creative energy.
The family and I headed out to a family reunion at an old pioneer outpost. That place reminded me of some of the dilapidated or abandoned mining, logging and farming settlements we would come across traipsing around the backwoods of Oregon. I took a nap in the car. I was getting cranky.
So it was around 10pm that my wife dropped me off at the studio to pick up my car and finish up some webwork.
My sincere thanks to those that visit this blog and the youtube channel. I really appreciate those that have supported Blue Table Painting.
Q&A Dragon Wings
hey guys question..where would be a good place for me to find say wings for a demon prince???
You can order Balrog wings (or other types) from GW.
Sometimes you can find a workable set for cheap at a local toy shop (by scavenging from a toy of some kind).
Look up “McFarlane Dragon” on eBay. These resin kits are really good and there are like 40 types of wing on them. They cost about $20 each though.
Pandora’s Army Update
I am holding out two more spots for this during this week. I plan on ordering materials this coming Monday. I have been meeting with both assemblers and painters talking about the possibilities.
More to come.
Beads for Land (part one)
Before we begin today’s exercise, I want you to first think about your income. How much do you make every month? Now I want to think about that as your life. Out of the eighty years on this earth, how many of them will you spend at work? Money is a representation of your time, an ultimately limited and invaluable commodity.
Additionally (by way of preface), please do not take the tone of this article as conspiracy-theory, or a rant against the injustice of the system. Think of it more as a product review, or perhaps a customer’s feedback about a company or an industry.
When a bank receives money on deposit (say, from you opening an account) it is allowed to put this money “on reserve”. This means that the bank can loan out ten times that amount. This is called “fractional reserve banking”. They keep a fraction on reserve.
So, if a bank has $1000 on reserve it can make a loan for $10,000.
Now, let’s say that you walk in and want a loan for, say, a car. If the amount of the loan is $15,000 the bank is allowed to make that loan on the basis of $1,500 in deposits (the reserve). So, where does the other $13,500 come from? It doesn’t come from anywhere. That other 90% of the money wasn’t saved, invested, or deposited. The bank did not have it. It was conjured from nothing based on your signature to repay.
This is called “fractional reserve banking”. It’s not conspiracy theory, just a fundamental fact of how the banking system works.
But this is ever so different than how the common man thinks it works. I always thought the bank loaned out money that it got on deposit. That’s how it’s explained in “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
Let’s go back to your car loan for $15,000. Let’s say that over the course of the loan you pay back the principle plus $3,000 interest. What is the bank’s profit? $1500 on reserve has doubled to become $3000 in interst payments from you. Not only that, but you also paid back the invented money to the tune of $13,500.
You paid back money that never really existed.
The real kicker is that it’s possible that you were the very person that has the $1500 reserve dollars on deposit. Because the bank is allowed to leverage your money at ten to one you have made yourself an indentured servant.
One more time, slowly. If you keep $1500 on deposit at your local bank, and then take out a loan for $15,000 from the same bank, you will pay them back $18,000 over the course of X years. On your own money.
Look it in the eye: a bank is a creature that produces no tangible good or service. It takes an apple, stores it, lends out ten fake apples, and collects thirteen real apples. A bank is not only the least valuable business on the street, it actually has a net negative affect on the community in which it resides.
I’d like each person reading this to think of his or her private debts. Now imagine that each one is only really worth one-tenth of its value.
In some cases, reserve money is leveraged out at even more ludicrous rates of 30:1 or 40:1. Your home could possibly be backed only by $5,000 of reserves.
This is worse even when considering the purchase of a home. Let’s say a man buys a modest home for $200K. Conservatively, he will pay back $100K interest on top of the $200K in principle, representing perhaps two or three years of his life working to pay money for only $20K of real money on deposit. He has been made an indentured servant.
Right now you are paying into this system. Even if you rent (you’re just paying indirectly through your landlord).
It is through this means that the banks are able to buy up the town and make everyone squatters on what is now their property. Seriously, think of what the total property value in your city is. Let’s take a town with 10,000 homes in it, each worth a value of say $200K. So, a bank with 200 million on deposit can effectively provide loans for everyone to “own” their home. The truth is that they have traded beads for the land and made every inhabitant a feudal serf. A well-dressed, well-fed, well-housed serf.
This leveraging of money (ie taking deposits and then inserting ten times that in invented money into the pool) also makes prices higher. About ten times higher. Houses and cars are so expensive because of the inflated money supply. Easy credit makes prices go up.
It is a swindle of mind-breaking proportions.
By the time you die you will have indirectly built a summer home for a Banker somewhere. You will have built his yacht without so much as a thank you in return.
It breaks a fundamental law of the universe: “by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of they life”. Or if you prefer, “you can’t get something for nothing.”
So, what to do about it? Here’s what I’m working towards. First, pay of my debts. Sure, it rankles me that they are collecting on money that doesn’t represent an honest investment. But that’s all right. It is not for me, but for God to deal as he sees fit. I hope He is merciful to them.
Then, I plan on taking the maximum amount of my deposit-money out of the system so they can’t ensnare other people into debt with it. I will deal in real commodities directly with my fellow man.
Where necessary and possible, I will keep my debts with fellow-citizens and pay interest to them instead (PS- I am looking for an investor in BTP).
I will do what I can to provide my children with homes that are paid for so that future generations can live free.
I will live humbly and live within my means.
Now, some may be thinking that the “services” (so called) that banks provide are voluntary. No one has to buy them. That is true to a great extent, and ties into the call that I am making with this article (which is to get as far away as possible from this dirty business). Bear in mind the effects of the inflation of the money supply. You can’t get away from this because everything you buy (especially a house, car, college education) is significantly more expensive because of the effects of invented money.
Imagine that a band of counterfeiters moved into your city and printed off millions of dollars to buy local goods. They could argue that they are enriching local businesses and indirectly making it possible for them to make their house payments. But the fact is that the town is drained of actual goods and services that are transferred to the counterfeiters in the net transaction. It gets worse. There is now an increased supply of dollars chasing after the same amount of goods. They have caused inflation.
Of course, the federal government would say that the counterfeiters are “stimulating” the economy!
Even though it (fractional reserve banking) is legal, this is the same net effect that a bank has on the local community.
Imagine
It is my opinion that the banks mask the real value of things. If they were to be cut out of the loop, a home might cost only $10,000 or $30,000. You really could save up and pay with cash (or even better, commodity-backed money). Divide everything by ten.
“But Shawn,” I hear someone wail, “don’t you know that the labor and materials just to build a home is on the order of $70,000.” Yes, perhaps, but its $70K of inflated money! The lumber, nails, and labor were all distorted in value by the vast ocean of credit.
As Pete Schiff has pointed out, all the Credit is not the cure, it’s the cancer.
Now imagine for a moment a world where there is no lending on interest, and there is no fractional reserve banking. Puzzle it through. How would that play out? Would everyone be in the streets with no home, no car? I suggest to you, gentle reader, that the opposite is true. You would own your home, own your car, own the land, own your life.
Now this can’t be right, because wages would be a tenth, wouldn’t they?
Other Misc.
You cannot opt out of this system. Taxes are levied in order to ensure the existence of the banks. I’m talking about bailouts. Bail out the toilet paper factory. At least they are producing something you can use.
Government should never provide bailouts. If a company needs an influx of cash they should get it from customers and investors. If there is no customer or investor then that business has no right to exist. We should all be very leery of something
Right now there is talk of setting up regulatory systems by which a “systemic” company (read: too big to fail) can be kept straight. No! If a company is that big it needs to be broken up vis a vis the anti-trust laws. Government should ensure fair play and healthy competition. Is that right?
I’m hearing often now cries out against “Fascism” or “Socialism” but never a peep about “Oligarchy”.
[PS- as usual, I am open to hearing new information. This is what I have so far. I am a political explorer.]
Pandora Still Going Strong
Still accepting project for Pandora. There’s been a great response, better than any other special to date. This morning I sat down with some of the Artists and went over some ideas and we had such a level of excitement for it that we want to do more!
Update: for Warhammer Fantasy we are accepting five “nixes” (three for 40K). We are flexible on this matter. If you own four armies we can guarantee no duplication.