Well holy crap, it's been a looooong time! But, rest assured that we're still here, alive and mostly well! I've been battling the challenges of higher education and had a serious boom in social activity as a result. What does this all mean? Less time for the blog, unfortunately.

I'm sure there's a lot of unresolved things in here, and they may well go on as such. For instance, those potato chip flavors have long since been voted on (I think Bacon Mac n' Cheese won), I don't really Warmahordes anymore (not that I ever really did), and... I think that was about it. That's not really a lot.

So, what's new?

Well, my desk is a veritable PILE of minis right now, and more than a few of them are painted. I've had some commission work, but I have been asked by the client not to release photos immediately. But, at this point, Deadzone 2.0 has been released, the Dreadball 2.0 Kickstarter is in 2 days, and Dark Age has really started to take off! Not to mention that I've attended, and am attending, several Dreadball tournaments since I last posted, and we're getting regular game nights for Dark Age and Wrath of Kings in a few weeks, and a Deadzone circuit is starting up!

Also, I picked up a Battle for Faerun Dice Masters starter. That's definitely more of a side hobby though...

There's a lot going on, and a lot I haven't talked about, but it's probably best to not try to play catch up, and start fresh. It's a new year (and what a year it's been, and not in a good way, yeesh), despite being over halfway through it, and we might as well leave the old ball behind and start rolling a new one.

But, where are the pictures? Well, like I said, I can't really show off any of my commission stuff, but I did finish painting a Dreadball team last night, as well as two others that I'll display in a future update which were painted for previous tournaments. I haven't thought of a team name for them yet, but here they are!

They aren't anything stellar (I spent more time on the other teams), but I've been battling Bell's Palsy for nearly a month now, so I'm just trying to paint something, since one of my eyes is always watery, and therefore blurry. I've found that a black shirt makes a reasonable backdrop, but I really gotta up my photo game in the future. Research!

Also, I'm back to hating photo formatting on this site. There's gotta be a better way than a janky Word format of drag and drop... Like, two medium size images should be able to sit side by side...

Anyway, lemme know what you think! I'll try to be more active going forward, but school is a real time sink! I just hope the time makes me the money. Have a wonderful day, and I'll see you next time!

The Whole Team of "Named Human Dudebros"

Strikers! From Left to right: Miller, Winter, and Tanaka. Numbers 3,2, and 1, respectively.

The Jacks! Iwata, Lee, and Jackson at numbers 4,6, and 5.

 

Lastly, the Guards! Smith and Takeda at numbers 8 and 7!

So, so sorry! Busy, busy, busy!

Holy fuck, I'm so bad at this!

A quick update as to why:

Excuses, excuses, but I've been enrolled in college and have been HELLA busy! Not only that, I have been doing some commission painting, and trying to generally organize my life into a neater package.

All of the stuff I said that was coming is still on its way, outdated slightly or not, plus a TON of new stuff that I'll have to break up over time. It's been a crazy 6 months!

Interlude

Good morning, all! I'm not dead yet!

Sorry for, what I view as, a near-criminal lack of posts.

This is just a friendly bumper to let you know that there ARE, in fact, mildly interesting and exciting things on their way in the very near future!

An upcoming small stint from Otakon 2014, some nice new purses I bought, my college beginning in a week, as well as some terrain and modeling projects I've been working on.

All that, and a bag of chips... 4 bags of chips, in fact, as I have acquired each of the new 'test' Lay's potato chip flavors! My personal review of each flavor, as well as my thoughts on the new Jalapeño Double from McDonald's is coming soon.

Stay tuned!

Sorry I'm late... I blame lag. More stuff!

Hey all! I know it's been a few days since I last did anything with this, so let's catch up (again) just a bit. But first... let me turn on a Sonic 3 & Knuckles soundtrack. Awwwww yeah.

Now, it's a little out of the timeline (by about a week), but I'd like to start with a brief rant about Ted's Montana Grill. Not about bison meat or watered down whiskey, because I am largely unconcerned about either of those (and I have no basis to claim that about their alcohol, I don't drink), but about their side dish of 'vine ripened tomatoes'.

Like the seasoning I added to them, I'm a little salty about that particular dish. It's $4 and delivers... 3 slices of A tomato. I'll grant them that the tomato is large, but cutting the tomato into pieces does not constitute tomatoes (plural), especially when I don't even get a full tomato out of the deal! Why is that even on the menu? I mean, really?

So, don't order that if you go there. Get the mashed potatoes or zucchini instead. Very tasty.

In other news, I got in a game of Zombicide last Sunday, and even encouraged at least one person to pick up the game! Playing with just Season 1 stuff, we all died (twice) on Mission 8 in the original book. All we had to do was open two doors... yeesh. 

During cleanup... It doesn't look like much happened here, but there was carnage.

My wife was there for game 1, which saw Shannon (her), Kim (me), El Cholo (Paolo), and the Cardboard Tube Samurai (Nick). El Cholo ended up locked in a fight for survival and pushed the experience tracker to Orange Alert, practically sounding the death knell for the party, and we were quickly overcome.

Game 2 tried to be a little more tactical. My wife had gone home to have a steak dinner, so Mansoor joined us and played as Amy. Nick changed to Crazy Ned, I moved to Raoul, and Paolo stuck with Danny Trejo... er, El Cholo. (Color coded base on model. 'Cuz I can.)

I was pretty useless for a good portion of the game, with Ned providing backup for me while El Cholo and Amy went for the objectives, even through an Abomination! It wasn't until Ned succumbed to an Extra Activation for the 8 Zombies in his zone, who ripped him apart, and unintentionally saved my life, that I came across a Chainsaw and swiftly avenged his sacrifice.

Amy grabbed the first objective while El Cholo chewed through undead flesh with his twin machetes. It didn't take long to push us into Orange Alert again, but we had a good plan to see us through. The Spawn Deck thought otherwise, and gave the Zombies TWO Extra Activations! Machetes and a Chainsaw weren't enough for that run of luck, and we were all devoured before we could make it to the bunker. Good times for all!

Back in the Batcave (or, as I like to call it, the studio) that night, I continued some work on my Relic Knights of the Black Diamond faction. It took me another night, but I finished a playable force. Or, at least assembled.

The Paramilitary Essence of Corruption: The Black Diamonds!

From left to right in the photo is the Chee M8-Blitz Auto-Tank, the enigmatic assassin squad of Suspect 7, a squad of Diamond Corps Marines, "One Shot" the Relic Knight, Fritz is the tiny Cypher familiar, and a Darkspace 'cosplay' version of Iron Chef. He's cosplaying as Maximum from the King of Fighters series.

The yellow is poster tack, as I still need to figure out how I want to base them. I like the purple bases...



Also, I finally sorted out my class schedule (which I hadn't mentioned before), as my Japanese class had decided to jump ship from Monday/Wednesday to Tuesday/Thursday, and overlap my Tech Math class. I just moved Math to M/W instead. I've never been to college before, so there's some anxiety for it. I'm sure I'll be fine once I start.

What else... Oh! Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 is out now! For those of you who don't know, it's basically a Magic: the Gathering simulator, with pre-constructed decks and a series of opposing AI decks to beat. You can unlock cards to improve your deck, and it's overall a very fun way to play Magic if you feel like vegging out for a while.

I did just that one of these past nights (can't remember), and am pretty impressed with the game. One thing irked me though. Wizards of the Coast has a 'Reserved List' for cards that shall never be re-printed. As in, they will never re-print these cards physically. On this list, I believe, are Dual Lands. These are lands that count as one of each type of their colors and come into play with no penalty. In short, very good. Well, in DotP 2014, Wizards did the cute thing and put Force of Will in a deck. It turns out that it was later released as a Judge Foil (special promo card).

Well, here we are at DotP 2015...

What tomfoolery is this?!

Even more amusing (or frustrating) is that you don't even get to play with it! It's in an AI deck! Wizards, you so crazy...

I haven't beaten the game yet, but so far it's good fun. Download it on your platform of choice if it looks like your sort of thing.

Speaking of Magic cards, remember that small boatload of cards? Worth $1100 in store credit! Now I can stop spending real money on hobbies! I could even buy a real Tropical Island... or two!

Can you just feeeeel the hype?
Me neither, apparently.

Only a couple more photos to go, and one of them is of me! (post-shower) Yaaaaaay! And the other? My breakfast!

This one was actually taken yesterday, while I was out walking Dog. I had been playing around with makeup to try and hide my 5 o'clock shadow. I also put on eyeshadow, but my Transitions lenses were doing their job, so you cant see it.

I'm really not a makeup person, so I was unsure of the outcome, but some foundation and a little bit of blush seem to improve some of my haggardness. I apologize for the apparent stink eye, but truth be told... the sun was in my eyes. :P

As for the breakfast, my wife has a soft spot for Reese's Crunch, or whatever it's called, so I had a bowl. Adults get to eat whatever they want!

Until next time, support your local merchants! (Heh, Psychonauts)

I'm an adult, damn it!

The Catch-up Episode! (Tomatoes Included)

Post #2! This post will be image-heavy, though I'm not sure at what point I qualify for that. My goal tonight (as it's 2:30 in the morning) is to finish my Pepsi and catch everyone up on roughly my last week or so of hobby stuff. Ideally, it'll spurn me forth, and showcase some of my work.

A brief synopsis of my day will follow as well. Kind of interesting day, I'd like to think.

With no further ado... pictures!

Lacking a game board of my own, I spent some time with no

small amount of flocking material, and made myself a 3'x3'!

 

The complete Man-O-War test figure!

Khador Man-O-War Shock Troopers.
I painted a test model, and hope to finish these folks!

I had a small Reaper Miniature case, perfect for my Neverborn,
so I painted on the Mask symbol.

About 16,000 bulk Magic Cards,
ready for transport and trade.
I'll kinda miss 'em...

 

A fair chunk of my bulk Magic cards, before the boxing!

Just a little bit of what I've been working on. This IS 'about gaming' after all... right? Well, not really. Now, about my day!


I'm currently unemployed (by choice, mind you), so I have a bit of free time on my hands most days. This morning, my wife's mom wanted to go to the local farmer's market. I only took one shot of the place, but the parking lot (not including the tents) was jam packed! They also had packed jam, of which I did not buy any of this time.

 My wife and I picked up some Turkish breakfast pastries, as well as some home-made tortilla chips and a delicious jalapeno salsa! Meanwhile, mom-in-law purchased tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and butter pecan ice cream. Aside from the fact that I had wanted to sleep in, it was a great start.

Not too long after that, my wife and I took her mom to the house (yeah, I live with the folks) and went to visit Seamus the Dog. His folks are in Ocean City for the week, so we're watching the dog. Uneventful trip, as I fed their fish, watered their plants, fed Seamus and let him outside. Then we went to Giant and bought lemons for lemonade.

Pip (my wife), had a lunch date with some friends, so I headed out to my friend Tom's game store: Curio Cavern to pick up a package. I ran into his sister, Valerie, and obtained an unexpected lunch date of my own. We had Thai and talked about spicy food and making clothes out of money.

After we parted ways, I watched a couple of practice Legacy MtG matches, got my Nephilim, and rolled out.

At home, Pip and I loafed for a bit, and eventually we had home-made lemonade and pizza. Good stuff, but no photos were had... too busy eating.

Once again, we were off to see Seamus again for his bi-nightly walk. Unfortunately, as we left the sad dog to his loneliness, I apparently forgot the key inside, and locked the door from the inside. After calling his owner, I learn that my next visit will involve climbing through a window. *sigh*

Seamus!

Next was seeing my wife to bed, and watching some SDA Speed Runs while scraping mold lines from Relic Knights models.

Currently, a speed run of Shadow the Hedgehog is on in the background as I finish this up.

Like I said, pretty simple stuff. I'll do some food reviews a little later, but for now I'm gonna sleep finally. It's 4am... Good night!

P.S. I have quickly learned to dislike the photo formatting on this site. Sorry for the weird positioning and format...

The Beginning of Mediocrity!

First post! Kinda hype... I hope you like separated paragraph-like things! (I like the ease of readability it brings to each thought.)

All right, how can we make this good?

Well, first off, I suppose I'll just start by making a generic post about myself. Stuff my friends may or may not already know, but the internet likely doesn't. Also a picture of me looking hella hype! (I'm not from Cali, I just like the word.) Yeah, colored text that isn't a link!

The hype is real!

Name's Daria, like the 90's MTV cartoon of the same name. My old name was Scott, though I usually went by Scotticus. I liked the Greco-Roman sound of it. If it's not entirely obvious by the title of the blog, I'm an MTF transgender person. It's something I've known for a very long time, though I've only been actively pursuing my transition goals since October of 2013.


 Also, the reason I went for 'btgamerchick' is for 'bisexual transgender'. My sexuality isn't terribly relevant, as I'm married to a cisgender woman, and have been for 4 years, but I can dig a dude too. Yay! Love in all forms!

We're gonna pause here, because I'm going to get a drink. I'm thirsty...

...10 minutes later, and we're back! For now, it should by known that any real cohesiveness to the blog isn't gonna be here.

I'm pretty far from the stereotype of 'girly', so it makes it hard to 'justify' or 'pass' as a chick, but my goal is to be who I am and no one else. I hold the stance that gender is a single person's identity, and is not tied to interests or actions. Society has placed stereotypes to gender, and I aim to buck that tradition. That said, I still find a fondness in fashion, though I don't dress it, as well as a few other conventionally girly traits.

Game: 'Dark Age'
Saint Mary of the Forsaken

My interests lie mostly in games of almost all varieties. Miniature, video, board, and card games are all my forte. If I had to categorize them further, it would be skirmish, fighting, co-op, and TCGs, respectively. I also enjoy junk food, martial arts, body-building (to a degree), comedy, organization, reading (rulebooks), cooking, home improvement, animals, guitar, music, internet culture, and stuff that I can't think of right now. I'm pretty sure that's most of it. (I don't actually do any martial arts, but I believe in their philosophies, and I just find body-building interesting. I don't actually lift, bro. Oh, and I kinda suck at guitar. Need to practice more.)

 I don't want to make each of these posts too wordy, so I'll continue a little bit later. I hope this has given a fairly generic glimpse into who I am.

I'm always free to answer questions regarding anything, though I can't guarantee my knowledge on every subject. I'm more of a Jane-of-all-trades, but feel free to ask anyway. Maybe you'll learn something! Maybe I will!