Wire-wrapped RPG Minis

I'm kinda in to role playing. Not the kind where you sit down with someone from work and pretend that one of you is a customer, and the other one tries to 'help'. The 'cool' kind, if such a designation can be applied to something so geeky.

Currently I am playing through a fantasy-themed campaign, wherein I play an Orc 'Elf slayer' named Kwarr (or Kwarrrhr or Quarr; the spelling varies from session to session, as Kuarr is barely literate). It is something of a custom for me to create my own mini for my character in whatever campaign I'm playing, and this session I've had wire-wrapping on the brain, so I pilfered some old CAT6 cable scraps and created the following:



Astute observers will no doubt note that his Ancient Bronze Sword (Good (+2)) can be held in his back sheath. Also, Orcish fashion and/or genetics dictate that he wears his hair in a mohawk.

My coworker Timothy created a similar, but much more elaborate miniature for his Elf character. I don't have pictures of it, otherwise I'd probably upload them here.

In a fit of inspiration this evening, I pulled out the wire and my wife's beading pliers and made a wizard character for another one of the guys playing:



Dick (the wizard) likes to use fire a lot, hence the wand and staff on fire for this mini. Also, astute observers will note that one arm of his robe and his hat are not the same shade of blue as the rest of his robe. Yeah. Apparently, there is very little quality control when it comes to CAT6 wire coloration. I didn't figure this out until I had made the large portion of his robe (the hard part) and didn't have enough of the old shade to finish. I've decided to explain this away by saying simply that he's a wizard, and wizards like to wear clothes that are a little...odd.
Also note his awesome beard, and the fact that anywhere you can see through his robe you can see that he is wearing a full set of long underwear in a lighter shade of blue.

Oh, and the weird wing-looking things in the second picture are actually a stand I made to get the picture. That was before I figured out that he would stand on his own, given a solid surface.

Both of these minis have been or will be mounted on a base to help with stability. I discovered that washers make a good base for this. The washers are about the size of a half-dollar. Just cover the top with double-sided tape, and stick the little feet down. Then, if you feel like overachieving, take an old leaf and crumble it over the rest of the tape and tamp it down. Voila! Instant bracken-y ground cover.

Okay, observation test time: Can you guess what four colors are found in the twisted pairs of CAT6 cable? (Hint: there are really eight colors, but four of them are a lighter version of the other four colors.)

Random Acts of Friday: Soup

I have a friend from the north-west of Spain. He is a Basque.

He said that in his home town, they grow the most delicious pears known simply as the Basque bosc.

Some of the old women in his home town like to puree the pears and boil them down into a Basque bosc bisque, but others say that you'll get a better taste if you add some nice veal to it: a Basque bosc brisket bisque. And, obviously, the best way to stir your Basque bosc brisket bisque is with a Basque bosc brisket bisque whisk.

The soup is so popular that some of the younger women even use it as a facial cleanser and make themselves Basque bosc brisket bisque masks.

Now, naturally, when you are eating your Basque bosc brisket bisque, you tend to want something bready to go with it, so they make special Basque bosc brisket bisque biscuits which do a very good job of absorbing the soup.

Even thought the Moors were kicked out of Spain, they left behind a very little bit of influence behind. For example, they used to cook a special 'halal' - or 'clean' - type of the Basque bosc brisket bisque biscuit, which was supposed to be eaten after their worship services. It was known as the Basque bosc brisket bisque mosque biscuit, and of course you carried it to the mosque in your basque bosc brisket bisque mosque biscuit basket.

So next time your traveling from France to Spain, take the opportunity to have a picnic, pack some Basque bosc brisket bisque and some Basque bosc brisket bisque biscuits into your Basque bosc brisket bisque biscuit basket. Is there a risk?? Don't even ask.

Random Acts of Friday: Sentimientos

Okay, I'm not a particularly sentimental guy. Ask my wife, my brother (who I never call), my mom or my dad, and they would probably all agree

Last night, after watching Survivor over at Mom's, and while I was waiting for...something, I was perusing Mom's cd collection and came across one called The Roches. When we lived in Indonesia, we had a tape that my uncle (who was our go-to guy for random musical selections, and is directly responsible for getting me hooked on Enya) had recorded for us.

Now, this music is not particularly high-brow. In fact I think the group (known as "The Roches" - apparently it was a self-titled album) might have produced a grand total of 3 albums or less. So I can't recommend that you pick up any of their cds and listen to them, because I doubt that you'll fall in love with their quirky, folksy sound and their unlikely lyrics about random, everyday-ish stuff. But I borrowed the cd nonetheless, because I just had a hankering to listen to it again.

So this morning I listened through all the songs on the cd that I recognized and didn't dislike. And now that I've had my 'fix', I think I can gladly go another 5 years before I ever listen to the Roche sisters again.

Well, with the possible exception of "Quitting Time", which is perhaps the best song in their repertoire (but again, this is not saying much).

P.S. - I just was looking at the cover art, which features three rather non-descript women in such things as tights and soccer shoes, and I noticed that it looks like two of them are twins. That just struck me as funny. Go figure.

Random Acts of Friday: Sickity Doo Dah

And by Doo Dah, I mean doo doo.

Why is that the times when you're sick are also the times when you get the most bowelular grumpies? You would think that your body would figure it out: "Hey, every time I stand up, I want to pass out. Maybe I should turn the juice down on the ol' processing plant downstairs." But no, the reverse seems to be true. "Hey, things are going nuts! Let's see how many times we can get this poor guy to stagger into the bathroom for the world's most urgent, but least productive job ever!"

Stupid bowels. Maybe we should all get astronaut toilets installed in our beds for when we're sick.

Come to think of it, that would be pretty handy for those times in the middle of the night when you're dead tired but can't sleep because you have to pee. You know, the times when you can't quite convince yourself to get out of bed, and you keep hoping that you can ignore your swelling bladder long enough to fall back to sleep, but every time you get close, the fear of waking up in a puddle stops you, so eventually you stagger out of bed and get it over with.

Those are almost as bad as waking up half an hour before your alarm because you have to pee, and knowing that if you could just fall back to sleep, you would be fine until the alarm goes off, but if you get up and get it over with, you'll never get back to sleep and you'll miss out on those last thirty blissful, dopamine-drenched minutes.