Ladyhawke

I urge you to go over to: Ladyhawke's Home Page and check her out. She is a really great musician & incorporates art into her CD covers & other things. She sometimes has limited edition works for sale online. Her music is great. It has a retro 80's feel, yet evolved. If you haven't heard her yet, go check her out!

Motorcycle maintenence

So there is a great local motorcycle dealer right off of Shields & 240 called Heartland Cycles. They helped me get a new battery for my Rebel about two years ago & were really friendly & great at customer service. Now I need front breaks. I e-mailed them today about my brakes & already received a reply. How fast is that!? Nowadays it seems no one ever gets back to you. They have a service dept. open on Saturdays and said to bring it by & it should only take a couple of hours & about $65.00. I hope they live up to my expectations of good service. I'll let you know! Oh, by the way, the sell used Motorcycles at a pretty reasonable price if you're looking.

Homeownership & roofing continued...

So, I called my agent, who then instructed me to call a roofer. Having watched enough stories of bad homeowner encounters with contractors, I first went to the Better Business Bureau & checked out who was listed with them. My first choice was Millennium Roofing & Construction. They had a nice website and allowed me to contact them online. I will contact two more sometime tomorrow. I want at least three estimates & three opinions on what needs to be done. It hailed golf ball sized pieces of ice on the roof today. I once again crawled up into the attic to try the string thing I saw on a DIY show. If you're not sure where the water is coming from but you have a general idea you are supposed to be able to put a sting in what you think is the waters path & it will run down the string into whatever you have the other end laying in. I know where the water is stopping, but unfortunately it is in an unconquerable space that I cannot reach. Let's hope I guessed right in the attic so the water won't have to run down the string in the living room into the bucket I have set up there anymore. I will be so glad when all of this is over.

Learning how

So, I learned today that Homeowner's Insurance helps with replacement costs of your roof in case you need to have it replaced. I plan on calling my agent & talking to her today about that. My insurance company is Mercury. I switched to this company from Allstate because Allstate had tripled my homeowner's insurance cost since the initial purchase. It was almost two grand. Mercury on the other hand was $800. It wasn't the cheapest I could get, but somewhere in the middle. I decided to share all this with you guys in case you ever have to go through this process. Hopefully it will be a nice easy process and the leak in my roof will be fixed as well as a new roof installed properly. I am going to start by simply calling my agent, not the insurance company directly, and talk with her about what I need to do to start the process. She is someone I like & trust & feel is very much on my side. I will update you more once I have spoken to her. Wish me luck!

Art 2009

This is my first completed painting for 2009. "Cloud Legs" I think I'll call it. It's an oil on canvas 24" x 30".

Resident Evil 5 figures

Neca has acquired the license for Resident Evil 5 & is releasing three figures from the game. Chris Redfield, Sheva Alomar, & Executioner. Chris has 25 points of articulation, Sheva 20 points & Executioner has 13 points not to mention his huge AXE. The figures look great and the packaging is also very nice. No price info is availabe at this time, but be on the look out for these!

Repair parts for G.I. Joes?

So you went to Small Joes but didn't find what you needed? Lucky for you there is another really great place to go. G.I. Joe Heaven. They have even more repair parts than Small Joes & they happen to be a little cheaper. They always have loose parts floating through their site as well in case your figure or vehicle is missing just one thing. You might get lucky, they might have it. They have screws, o-ring/bands, and hose tube for your Joes. They also have a ton of comics starring the Joes & Cobra. Check them out if Small Joes didn't have what you needed.

Small Joes Website

Hey, if you're looking for some great deals on hard to find military action figures/vehicles/items or figure accessories, stands, etc., then Small Joes probably has them. I have personally dealt with these guys & their product is good, fast, & well packed. I was restoring my brother's 3 3/4 G.I. Joe's screws & bands & these guys had everything I needed. They also usually have a great clearance "aisle" with items like shirts, Batman, Aliens, Anime, Microman & more. Go check them out!

Cool Cospaly action @ MegaCon

2009 Megacon Convention, the southeast's largest comic book, science fiction/fantasy, anime, gaming, toys and multi-media convention. I thought the legos were a unique approach.

Another Star Wars Mod

This time it is an R2-D2 Ghetto Blaster. Pretty sweet. Check out the original post about it here: R2D2 Ghetto Blaster

Sweet Star Wars Swag

Every once in a blue moon a friend asks me if I want some old Star Wars stuff they have. Being an avid collector, yes is almost always my answer. Most of them are extremely generous & just give me the stuff. In fact, I don't think any of my friends have ever wanted money from me for the goodies they have handed over. Most of the time they say things like: "I know it will be safe with you", or "Well, at least I know you will take care of it", even "Well, at least it won't just go up on Ebay to someone I don't even know". This means a great deal to me. These friends are entrusting me with important items from their childhood. Things they love, but just don't have a place for in their adult homes & lives. Sometimes, however, I get Star Wars swag from friends that have talked their spouses out of it. I count myself lucky. I will never have that problem. I live with a fangirl. I feel for them, but I want them to know, I will take care of it. It will be displayed for others to see & I appreciate their sacrifice. Just today one such sacrifice arrived at my home. Let me tell you, this was one of those times when you open a box & gasp in disbelief. What you find inside exceeds all expectations & you are magically transported back to a random Christmas sometime between 1978/79 to 1983/84. I have dreams about things like this! I never actually owned an original Ewok Village & now my friends...I do. Complete in mint shape minus one tiny part. Not only that but some amazing other things, like original figs, instruction books, card backs, weapons, and a complete vintage near mint working AT-ST. I want to say "Thank you" to the brave soul who allowed his wife to ship those things my way. I also want to say "Thank You" to Christy for talking him into letting you do it! I'm clearing a space for it ASAP.

AT-AT Boombox

This AT-AT Boombox seems to be a custom-made Mod job. I found it here: BoingBoing
and here: Gizmo

It's pretty cool. From the comments on both pages I'm pretty sure they would sell really well. Perhaps a home theatre system with a death star subwoofer and AT-AT for the front end sound and hangable Tie Fighters for the left & right back speakers could also appear. That would be super sweet!

Storm Shadow Sideshow Exclusive

Go sign up & do what you've gotta do to be the first in line for this! Limited to only 1,000 pieces worldwide and only available direct from SideshowCollectibles.com this G.I. Joe/Cobra 12 inch figure is going to be hot, not to mention the coolest thing on the toy shelf or mantle! Make sure you are qualified for Priority Pre-Order before Thursday, February 26th at 11:59 PM (PT) by signing up at Sideshow and filling out the online "paper"work. The Priority Pre-Order event for the new G.I. Joe Storm Shadow 12-inch Figure begins Friday, February 27th, at 10:00 AM (Pacific Time). Storm Shadow will cost you $119.00.

Obi-Wan

Wow. I really want to start collecting these Sideshow Collectibles statues. This one is from a New Hope & has great detail and a really great likeness of Obi-Wan. It is 12" H (304.8mm) x 9" W (228.6mm) x 8" D (203.2mm)* and weighs in at 6.00 lbs (2.72 kg).
It'll cost you US $159.99 + S&H.

Wave 8 Star Wars Mighty Muggs

Get ready for the next wave of Mighty Muggs! Qui-Gon, Wicket, Wampa, & Emperor's Royal Guard are up for grabs sometime between now & April!

Darth Vader Toaster

Check it out at StarWarsShop.com

Red Star

If you love the good 'ol USSR as much as me and you read comics then you have probably come across Red Star. Red Star is an award-winning graphic novel created by Christian Gossett. It follows an epic battle in a world of militarized sorcery and monolithic technology, where...well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Go pick it up and then grab yourself one of these to go along. There's three characters to choose from: Kyuzo Desert Combat, Maya, & Makita. Pictured here is Makita. They run $40 and might be a little hard to find (try Ebay or wishlist them at Gentle Giant).

Golf Club Covers From A Galaxy Far Far Away

Here for a mere $24.99 is a snazzy golf club cover for any fanboy/girl. Yoda, Chewy, and Vader can now help you use the Force in your golf game!

New collectors Wonder Woman Barbie

Mattel made a Wonder Woman Barbie a few years back, but now they have a new version including the cape. She retails for around $50 and you can find her online at Entertainment Earth or probably at your local comics or Barbie collector shop.

Resolute

So, everyone has been posting resolutions and what changes they want to make and so on and so forth. I never was much for these things but this year is a bit different. In the last 8 years I have gotten so far away from my intended path that I think it's time to get back on track. To do this I realized I needed some goals, inspiration, motivation and "gasp" maybe some resolutions. I am an artist, musician and writer. That is my first resolution. When people ask me what I do, that is to be my answer. Not my day job title. That job is simply to pay bills while I reach my goals and fulfill my dreams. It is not me or any part of who I am. Now, if I am an artist, musician, and writer than I damn well better start painting, creating, composing, writing, practicing all these things and start producing some sort of results. NaNoWriMo really helped me get geared up and passionate as far as the writing, now I need to find an art competition and music writing/composing competition to do the same. That's #3. Find and enter every ligit competition I can. I want to ride my bicycle more often to get rid of what appears to be blossoming saddle bags on the sides of my thighs. I also want to get back to being more muscular. I loved weight lifting. It gave me a sense of strength and confidence in myself. I want that again. I also want to practice being more social. I realized sometime last year that I have completely managed to lose most of the social skills I picked up in college. I had zero before I got there so you can guess where I am at now. I have to be okay with doing dumb things sometimes and looking like an ass sometimes and maybe saying the wrong things sometimes so I can learn how to do all those things the right way. Ever since entering into the world of retail my confidence and social skills have dramatically declined. I think it was from the constant belittling and negative bombardment of co-workers and especially customers. I learned how mean and nasty people are to people in customer service no matter how good you are or how hard you try to please. I will NEVER work retail again. I swear to you I would shoot or hang myself first. I am not kidding.
I am also going to practice more living in the moment. It is a Buddhist philosophy that I really love. Forget the past. Detach yourself from it and quit looking into the future at what you think might happen or what you want to happen and focus on today. What can I do today. So there ya go. Wish me luck. I hope you all meet your goals and this year we all kick ass instead of getting our asses kicked! :)