Tentacle Monster Lair: March 2006

My new phone:

I want one, badly. The whole front of the phone is a crafty display, that shows old skool reels when in music mode etc.

When I went through Japan I spent about 6 hours checking out the phones there. Some were like miniature lambourginis, and others were basically chopsticks. The thing that got me the most about them was the list of technical capabilities often included technology I have only heard of in Iain M Banks novels. Being serious though, they did have designs to address every possible style or aesthetic desire the Japanese could possibly want to carry round and show off, i.e. every 'fashion' invented to date.

What do we get? Grey lumps of shit by Nokia. At least Motorolla are trying I guess.

I often daydream about the 'Sandbenders' Gibson used in I-can't-remember-which-novel. Custom designer made computers for individuals. From what I remember they were a sort of goggle-and-glove system with a CPU worn somewhere on your body?

Anyway, the concept of hand made, one off, designer call-them-what-you-will systems hold a lot of appeal for me. I guess they are kind of case mods, but I imagine phones, iPods, PDAs, Laptops, all of that kind of shit, built by artisans, individual and rad.

"At least you don't have a girlfriend to lose"

My housemates helpful comments as I sit here installing potentially the biggest mistake of my life.

Yep, it's WoWtime kids.

Farewell, it's been good. Tell my family I love them.

P.S. I have also found a little shop around the corner that imports Gundam model kits from Japan and sells them to me, with paints and glue and all the fun stuff. So much for trying to get a root...

Paging Monkeypox re: Armylist

My 12 year old has most of an army now thanks to Uncle Skaffen visiting from the UK with Castellan Draco (limited release UK only, with UK white dwarf with rules for him) and a Forgeworld resin MKIV venerable dreadnought (with all weapon configurations, we're going to set it up with rare earth magnets so he can set it up how he likes for each game.)

So I have a few questions if you get time:
- The codex says a character can only lead a terminator command squad if they are in terminator armour, else they can only lead a normal command squad. But the white dwarf article says Draco (who is not in terminator armour) CAN lead either, but to refer to the codex rules. (I emailed OZ GW but they didn't know and said try UK GW, which I've yet to do.) Am I right in guessing that even if the UK GW people say yes he can lead a terminator squad, pedantic dorks at tournaments and game days will argue that the rules are only official if they're Chapter Approved, and a WD article on the character doesn't count? Should we save the heartache and just put him with the standard command squad, and do a sick conversion command dude in termie armour to lead those boys?

- His army is looking like being around 1500 points initially. Do we aim to try to get it that exact amount? With the dreadnought variations there will be fluctuation, but can fix that by adding and removing figures.

Next - TANKS!!
(and maybe a seige dreadnought conversion, I need a cone shaped drill bit to use hmmm. Bunnings maybe.)