The littlest gamer

So what does a middling miniature painter and professional procrastinator do in his free time?



Reproduce, apparently. My son Blake Murdoch Wilson was born at 9:15pm November 2.

He's adorable and incredibly difficult to take a bad picture of. That is to say he's photogenic. He's also not that hard to take care of. Perhaps its best described as just time consuming and, in a lot of ways, brings me back to my baby sitting days. Only this time, I'm not getting paid.

I look forward to raising a third generation wargamer should he show interest.

160 Greatest Arnold Quotes

Not a bad complitation, pretty good actually.

Wilson Population +1

I'll be a dad.

We just confirmed it from the doctor. I'm a bit stricken for words.

Made of so much win it hurts

Beastie Boy's "Sabotage" done with a shot for shot remake using "Battlestar Galactica".

Only minor, and vague, spoilers follow.

MR2 Update: ...and I was grateful!

Engine mostly mounted. I converted all potential parts headaches to US model equivalents instead of dealing with potential Japanese parts orders. This ended up being a God-send of sorts, because closer inspection of the “better” Japanese equipment proved that even though they were shiny and visibly less tired, they were actually in poorer shape.

The A/C compressor for instance barely turned and had all the spinning ability of a rock and some sandpaper. The “used” US one was rebuilt in Texas and spins effortlessly.

Another surprise is the model year of new engine.
As I kept sorting through wiring shenanigans and making the best of the situation through common sense (JDM connector shenanigans), I noticed the distributor and igniter were different- way different. So upon researching the parts code of the igniter, I noticed that it was for a Gen2 (US year 94+) motor.

I was replacing a Gen1 (US year 91) motor.

And like a kaleidoscope of failure the problems became obvious. This kind of swap is still common, but it gives me a frame of reference for how to go about things moving forward (and kept me from making some hilarious mistakes).

It’s not the engine I wanted, It’s actually a bit better, and I can make do. It’s not the supplier’s fault either for shipping the wrong product. Because it is a 3SGTE engine like I ordered. It probably did come from an early gen MR2 SW20 like I need. And it does have all its parts. But the key here is what year are they referring to and from what country are they referencing, because the USDM motors lagged behind their JDM counter parts. A ’93 3SGTE motor means 2 different things depending on country.

Regardless, whether through ignorance or accident, I got a better engine than I bargained.

In a dream world, the car would be running given a few more hours of hard work and no mistakes. It’s about 5 radiator hoses, reassembling the fuse box, putting on the other engine mounts, attach the shift cables, attach the transaxle, and add fluids. I’m in the final mile.

The thing that amuses me the most is the anecdote I can distill from this. It's been cold lately, with snow all over the ground typically.

I can finally say, "In my day when we wanted a car we built it... out of parts... in the snow... AND WE WERE GRATEFUL!"


I'm not embellishing that much at all either.

Legend of Galactic Heroes

I've only started watching Legend of Galactic Heroes, and this pretty much sums it up. It's the only anime I've ever seen where being in the title credits doesn't guarantee anything, at all.

It's got grand fleet movements, good classical scores, a keen interest on naval strategy, and a sort of Death Note style polarity between the admirals and their respective commands all shot in a historical war movie style. It's even a sort of a wonder child of the cash stuffed Japanese 80's where there are far more things painfully animated that are very rarely seen in feature films, let alone a TV series.

All in all, good stuff so far.
Bonus for watching the series: The episode of The Melancholy Sadness of Haruhi Suzamiya "The Day of Sagittarius" makes a lot more sense and considerably funnier.

A One Way Ticket To Awesome

Seriously this has to be one of the best "Christmas Episodes" of any series by far.