On the way to Chicago for the long weekend, we had the misfortune on stumbling across "The World's Largest Truckstop," which is quiet possibly the largest monument to "Trailer Trash" I have ever seen. So what is inside the World's Largest Truck Stop? Well, let me show you!
Coon Skin Caps
Samurai Swords
An entire aisle of hood ornaments
Optimus Prime!
Needless to say, I stood out like a sore thumb... most of the people there probably thought I was there to deliver someone's lunch, so I had to resort to extreme measures blend in with the local populace:
Just got back.... the bandwidth in the building was sucked up by all the computer games at the LAN party there, so doing anything on the internet was pretty much impossible. Expect a full writeup, complete with pictures, in the next couple of days or so while I recover!
Here we are at MAGE Con Spring 09.... I will updating this as the day progresses...
Things are pretty quiet now, but here is small teaser of what is to come... super heavies galore!
Update 1: Robert Ridsal showed up with this AMAZING Gargant... completely scratched built! The details on the model is insane, and I will be taking some close ups of it later tonight.
I also got in a game vs. Dennis and his Hrud (using the IG rules). We played a Spearhead mission with 2 objectives, in which I won 1-0. Had Dennis not rolled abysmially, he would have blown me off the table. Score one for the World Eators!
World Eators surround an objective in a swirlling maelstrom of gore!
This is what having a lot of free time will net you and getting a shitton of AoBR Orks for cheap will get you. All 86 of these guys have custom bases carved out of cork (to do this, I had to remove the slotta base slots... royal pain in the ass!), as all of them have the barrels of their sluggas bored out.
These guys will paint up pretty fast though... more updates to come!
Bart, Dennis, Chip & Brent rally around their banner!
Now that the dust has settled and cleared from Adepticon, the reports are slowly filtering in through the interweb. Paper St. Products (known around here as the Sioux City guys) was one of the local(ish) group fortunate enough to attend. Bart, the de facto leader of the crew, has graciously given me permission to post his report/impressions here.
Bart's Report:
I had to paint frantically from last Friday night until the Wed night before we left. We even had Bertie helping with Simon's Ultramarines since I was using them in the Team tournament.
Thursday we left around 9:30 and had a decent ride to Lombard, Illinois, just west of Chicago.
First thing we did was visit the Chicago battle bunker. They had the war of the ring book, and a lot of pre-release models on display. We got our picture taken with the giant space marine and shopped for a while, but honestly the GW workers were condescending dicks. It was like being talked to by some over energy-drinked male cheerleader. Further proof that independents do a better job than GW does at most things.
We went and checked into the hotel, which was ridiculously overpriced. We painted some figures and Brent and I had a few super-heavy fights on the bed of Nurgle Baneblade vs. Brass Scorpion so we could polish up on the super heavy rules.
Friday morning was event check in time. The line was huge but it went fast and we got a decent bag of free stuff, including some figures, a sprue of zombies, two Black Library books, a bunch of Gale Force Nine stuff, etc etc etc. The highlight was a bag of bits from the Warstore with a coupon for an additional 5% off an order.
Friday: Brent and I played in the Gladiator tournament. My first opponent was a demon army centered on Fateweaver and the named Forge World Bloodthirster. Needless to say I was out gunned a bit by the 888 point killing machine. I did take out Fateweaver on the first turn it appeared. Unfortunately the mission was controlling the center and there was a 888 point demon standing there so I lost, but just barely.
Next game was against imperial guard with a Warhound Titan and a small Inquisition allied contingent.
He won the roll to go first and killed over half my army in his first shooting phase. Half by blowing up my brass scorpion, which subsequently exploded in a 3d6 (SEVENTEEN!) inch radius explosion of str 9 AP 2. Then the Warhound and its four str D pieplates cleaned up most of the rest. What little survived was mopped up by Col. Shaffer’s Last Chancers deep striking in with guardsmen (who are Bs 4 and come in groups of 8) melta-gunners. So yes I lost that one really, really badly.
Game three was against a teenage kid who had all flying Eldar. The mission was that we got a free vortex grenade and that went very badly for him. I threw it at one of his wave serpents then it randomly bounced around in his army killing a lot of stuff. He was basically a noob, he didn't know he couldn't assault after getting out of a wave serpent that had moved. I wiped him out.
Last game was a demon army with a lot of nurgle and slaanesh, also three demon princes with mark of nurgle, and a lot of flamers of tzeetnch. (they shoot a template that is no armor or cover save). This game was close for a while then went bad and he mostly wiped me out.
I was 1-3 but it was fun. If I was gonna play again next year it'd be better to actually read the scenarios ahead of time and have a better super heavy than a brass scorpion. We got Adepticon poker chips for use as objectives, it was these little extras that added a lot to the weekend. Two undefeated guys next to me argued so much that eventually the judges all just sat down and refereed their game. The prize was a Reaver titan from Forge world.
Demons , imperial marines and chaos marines were very common, and this theme carried allweekend. A lot of people drink right at the tables while playing all day.
Many of the team had set up their display bases for the team tournament by this time so that was a cool thing to check out. a lot of them had lights and music.
We had very little time after the event as the team tournament kicked off at 7:00 AM. Brent came up to the hotel room carrying an armload of Tyranid stuff he bought dirt cheap, including some Forge World upgraded Carnifexes. Apparently the bits trading included a lot of sweet deals, but I didn’t go this night.
Saturday
I woke up Saturday morning coughing up blood, a theme that kept going through Saturday and Sunday... :^(
There was a lot of awesome team themes and displays. Ours was not as bad as a few others. Our flag was small and weak, but I liked it. (There were some pretty cool team flags, see pictures)
First game was Chip and I against "Chaos party of four" Chaos, Slaanesh and Tzeentch. We did ok but in the end we lost. They had actually play tested and coordinated their forces.
Next was Brent and I vs. Deathwing. They had four units of Termies, two Land Raider Crusaders, and two dreadnoughts. There army was beautiful to look at, see pictures.
We beat them pretty badly.
Next was Dennis and I against Orks and tau. The Orks were the best Ork army I have ever had the pleasure to play against. We lost but at this point we didn’t care much.
Next was Dennis and I again vs. team COBRA. They had a display board that looked like Cobra from GI-Joe’s base and it pulled into four pieces, each with a force led by one of the Cobra command characters, we had Cobra Commander and Dr. Mindbender in our game. Chip and Brent played against Serpentor, I didn't see the other character.
Our game was a draw.
This night I did check out the bits swap area…. I got an original Greater Demon of Khorne, Fabius Bile, 6 Nurgle marines, 6 old riders of chaos for 40K(most on this list won't recognize them) and a lot of other stuff for 25 bucks.
Then I ended up buying a World Eaters Forge World Dreadnaught with two sets of both side arms and a bag of random dread bits, (4-5 arms and some Juggernaught heads ) for 45 dollars.
I also got a tech marine with Thunderfire cannon for my son for his marine army for 20 bucks.
Sunday
The fantasy team tournament was Sunday morning and Dennis and I attended with our Skaven and Night Goblin team.
Our first game we got creamed by Dark Elves and Undead. Again, it seemed like they had play tested and such…. their army was ok and themed nicely.
Next was an Empire and Dwarf team. We beat them and had a great game. The guy had cool samurai Dwarf conversion.
In between here there was a big break to look at the armies. The Fantasy team event didn’t seem to draw the same amount of effort from most as the 40k one, but there was still a lot to look at. There was a few highly questionable teams such as Skaven and Lizardmen, Goblins and Brettonians, etc.
Our last game was against High Elves and Dark Elves. It was a close game that we ended up losing and we downgraded them quite a bit on their retarded theme. Essentially we thought that some of the other themes were just thrown together or played by little kids, that why they made no sense, but these guys actually had theirs based the same and tried to explain it with some lame story but I told the guy right to his face it was BS.
They were nice guys and had a nice looking army.
Overall Impressions
Overall I'd say the biggest letdown was feeling like crap all weekend and the underwhelming terrain, esp. since they bragged up all this new terrain. In their defense though, when you have 200 tables in the main hall alone to make terrain for, it is a big job. Also there was Reaver Titans galore on the tables so most terrain is irrelevant to them anyways.
The Adepticon staff was awesome. They spent a little too much time on the mic, but when you’re in a room with multiple 40k tournaments, WFB events, Warhammer Ancients events, etc. etc. all going there is a lot of announcements.
Overall my conservative estimate is that this was 1,000,000 times better than any GT or CotN we have been to. It proves yet again that the independent tournaments are doing a better job than GW. Actually some of the most annoying times at the event hall was when a GW rep was talking because they're so full of garbage and propaganda. If I heard one more GW rep blabbering about AP3 guns for IG Stormtroopers I was gonna puke. My prediction for that is that they pump up the AP 3 guns a ton and sell everybody the metal guys before releasing the plastic ones.
Gav Thorpe was there but I didn’t talk to him. Seemed like he sat there alone most of the time. Gale force nine was there with everything they sold. The army transport guy was there and built a custom 40K scale ork spaceship that was on display all weekend. FFG was there with a big 40K role-play display, as well as pushing the new talisman.
There was a few other miscellaneous vendors with some good deals on used stuff and bulk pewter space ships and figures.
I'd consider Adepticon the Mecca of GW gaming (and it has nothing to do with how far we drove.)
The team displays were incredible. The sheer volume of GW events was insane, you could play 40K or WFB everyday, and it seemed like you could play Blood Bowl , LOTR, or Ancients everyday as well.
They said they had record attendance with around 1,000 people. IMO they could move to a cheaper hotel.
Thanks for the awesome writeup Bart... I'm still kicking myself in the nuts for not being able to go this year! When asked if he would make a return trip in 2010, Bart said that the wheels were already beginning to start spinning, so I would take that as a resounding yes!
You can check out Bart and Chip's photo dump of the event here!
Yes! For those of who you don't know, Podhammer is a podcast about WFB run by a bunch of hilarious guys in Australia. Jeff Carroll, the mastermind behind the project, recent ran into some personal issues and everyone thought the show was placed into limbo indefinitely. However, some of his friends stepped up for Jeff personally and took over the reigns.
Podhammer is really great to listen to while you are painting/cleaning/whatever, and it always produces a ton of laughs... check out the latest and past episodes here!
The message boards were abuzz today about possibly 2 major departures next season. Unfortunately for the Bluejay faithful, Cavel Witter will not be with the team next season. I know a lot of fans were disappointed with him this past season (he was basically forced to play another posistion due to injuries on the team), but personally I was a huge fan of him... Cavel "turned it on" when it counted, most notably against SIU at home and then again at Missouri State. He was so clutch at the end of the game where free-throws counted.
Cavel had some of the fastest hands I have ever seen... it was awesome watching him warm up... he dribbled 2 balls in and out between his legs without even breaking a sweat. The best memory I will have of him is when he dropped a massive 42 points on Bradley last seaon... one of the best games I have ever seen. I for one will really miss him.
Best of luck to you wherever you end up Cavel!
As for Kenton, he isn't commenting on his future to the press, but rumors speculate that he can't stand P'Allen so much to the point that he doesn't want anything to do with the team. This would leave a HUGE gap for us sizewise and post depth. This compounds the potential loss of Coach Fish (our recruiting brainchild) to Northen Flordia.
The next few days will be very tense in the Bluejay Nation... Kenton please stay!
Wow... everytime I think they have pushed the envelope as far as they can, they push it even further! Laura and I laughed our asses off while watching this. Our favorite part had to be the congressional hearing (shown above).... I will never think of the "Road Warrior" the same way again. The episode concluded with a musical number that had Laura and I in tears!
This episode did raise the question in my mind is there such an double standard as the episode suggests? I actually drummed up enough courage (or some might say stupidity!) to ask Laura if she thought there was a double standard, and she replied no because after hanging out with me so long, farts no longer phase her!
A small preview shot of the NEW Bit Kingdom's "Apocalypse Room" as part of their new storefront.
It's a huge upgrade from the warehouse he is at now... the place is at an awesome location (72nd and Farnam, just across the street from Starbucks/right above Gamers), has carpet, and even heating and air conditioning.
Thanks to the miracle that is Blogger, I just figured out that I can change the date on posts, meaning all the back logged entries I have can now be placed in chronological order, rather than today/the day I post them.
This is great for many reasons, the two most important being:
1). I can now purge my cell of over 100 images of food! 2). This gives me something to do for the next couple of days... you know you watch too much daytime TV when you can go 5 for 5 on Murray paternity tests!
Our very own Justin Carter was deemed to have the best dreads in all of college basketball, according to the site Yardbarker.com... you can see the full list of recipients here.
This is hilarious because I remember reading in the paper that part of the deal of signing with Creighton was that Coach Altman had to let him keep his hair, which he had been growing since like middle school... in fact, his mom was even more concerned than Justin was! I also remember reading that everyone on the team was ribbing him about how much he looked like two certain SIU players who will not be mentioned! I was very excited when we signed him.. I thought, "Yes! We have our own predator now!"
Justin was a keystone in the Jays' success this year, and he will be pivotal next season. He is my favorite player not only because he is from the land of crabcakes (Maryland), but he always plays his heart out. Justin is the kind of player that dives for loose balls, takes charges, and all the other little things that coaches and fans love.
I got to see this last night at the Orpheum, and it was AMAZING. It was literary 2 hours of the raunchiest puppets I have ever seen (it blew Crank Yankers and Team America out of the water)... you know you are in for a good show when the opening number is entitled "It Sucks to be Me."
Topics covered were racism, sex, homosexuality, drinking, violence and everything else that makes up a good show in my eyes. It definitely brought back a lot of memories of watching Sesame Street, Schoolhouse Rock and the Electric Company growing up as kid, but this was much more twisted. Featured above are the "Bad Idea Bears," whom I have definitely listened to in the past. Don't let the innocent appearance fool you... this pair will lead you down the wrong path in a hurry!
Our favorite number was definitely "The Internet is For Porn," which had the entire audience dying. You can check it out on Youtube here, but it soooo much better in person.
It is also funny to note there was a couple sitting next to Laura and I who obviously did not enjoy themselves. They sat through the entire first act without uttering a single laugh, and did not return after intermission. I don't know what they were thinking the show was about... the commercials and ads made it very clear what they were getting into!
Well, this thing was never really dead, but I've just been super lazy to update it! I actually took lots of pictures of food and stuff, but just never got around to posting it. So, now that I have graduated and have a plethora of time during this transitional phase in my life, on with the show!
So first thing on the agenda is a new look to go with the new year! So to all three of you who currently follow this blog, things may be a little shaky the next couple of days while I set everything up.
The new layout at the top of the site is setup so you can filter the posts more easily, so if you have no idea what Warhammer is, but you like reading about what I ate, then you are good to go!
I will also setup stuff like an RSS and Twitter feed just so I can get used to working with those.
I know what you are thinking... Vidlak sounds like someone connected with the Russian or Polish mafia, and his family cafe is just a front for his nefarious activities. You aren't far off at all.... just kidding!
What Vidlak's Family Cafe is basically Village Inn (think Denny's for you guys on the coasts) on crack. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE diners... a wide variety of choices and breakfast available anytime is a winner in my book. Vidlak's delivers the goods! They have breakfast, ranging from your basics such as omelets and pancakes to more exotic stuff like benedicts and quiches, as well as a wide range of sandwiches and burgers.
Pictured is the "Steak and Stack," which consisted of a nice 7 ounce steak, 2 eggs, 2 "German Pancakes" (basically super hash browns) as well as 3 fluffy "Dollar" pancakes (miniature versions of their massive pancakes.). Everything was awesome... the eggs were cooked just the way I liked them, the steak had minimal gristle and was cooked perfectly and the pancakes were amazing.
The best part of the meal definitely had to be the price tag. All the pictured food, plus a similar combo for Laura and two cups of coffee cost less than $20, including tip!
It was very filling, and I even had room for pie afterwards, but one quick glare from Laura told me pie would have to wait for another day.
Ah yes the Taj, my favorite Indian place in Omaha. I like this place because when I'm too lazy to cook my own curry at home, I can something just as good (ok, maybe even a little better) here.
Not only is the food good here, it isn't outrageously priced! Ordering something similar from other Indian places in town will almost certainly be $3-5 more, and that adds up quickly.
The thing I love most about the Taj is their naan and their tea. They have several different kinds of naan (the garlic is super yummy), and the chai is amazing.
Pictured above is their Madras curry, with a plate of naan in the background. It wasn't as hot as I would have liked it to be (which was probably a good thing for Laura, my roommate and the people in the unit next to me), but it was still very good. I like my curry very thick so that it sticks to you ribs, and this curry did just that.
There is Mexican food, and there is Tex-Mex food. Jonesy's Taco House is neither! If there was a category for grease, velvetta cheese, pounds of meat and awesomeness, than Jonesy's would be it!
This little gem is tucked away at 60th and Woolworth, right next to the Trackside bar. I love this place because not only is the food great and the price is superb, but it has loads of character. If you go during lunchtime, you see the full spectrum of people , ranging from students, blue collar workers, corporate suites and everyone in between. My roommate Fat Greg also aptly pointed out that our waitress there bore a striking resemblance to Dex of Star Wars: Episode one fame. Bonus points!
Pictured above is their 2 enchilada and a taco combo, which I like to call the "Gut Buster." It is easily close to over 2 pounds of food, and that is before they add the rice, beans and enchilada sauce. I can eat a lot of food, and even I was hard pressed to finish just the one enchilada and taco. I ended up taking the other enchilada home as well as some of the worst stomach cramps I have had in a long time. I could feel the taco and enchilada just sitting in my stomach bubbling for the rest of the day and most of that night. The odd thing was I did not feel better until I ate the leftovers. At least the grease made it travel through my digestive system relatively quick.
During this week's visit to Sechwan Sunrise, we discovered that some girl actually drove through the front window, taking out the entire wall! Pictured above is Laura sitting in front of what remains of said window, only all boarded up. Do not panic though, the kitchen's ability to pump out tastiness has NOT been affected!
Much to my joy (and as much to Laura's dismay), I discovered that our very own Oakview Mall has its own Dim sum shack at the food court! It's tucked away in the back near the Gap, but it's kinda hard not to miss if you walk by because of all the steam baskets on the counter.
They offer all kinds of dumplings, as well as bao (steam buns filled with awesomeness) , bubble tea and even sushi! I had a nice chat with the owners (Mr. and Mrs. Lin), and I found out that they are from China, but they learned to cook in Taiwan. They were both very passionate about their food and we probably could have talked for hours, but there was eating to be done!
Pictured on the left is one of thier combo meals. For around $7 you get 4 dumplings (I got shrimp and pork), 2 bao (BBQ pork ftw!) and a large bubble tea... not bad at all. The dumplings were ok (to be fair it was near the end of the day), but the bao were extremely good... like I was back in China town eating from the street vendors good. The bubble tea was an excellent way to wash everything down. I think the only way it could have been better if they had the Thai flavor, but you can't have everything.
I was very impressed and told the Lins that they would be seeing me much more in the future, and I'm sure they will. I'm looking forward to trying out the rest of their menu.
Update: Apparently these guys have a website here, and according to it you can call ahead with your order so you can just come to pick it up... I love it!
My Uncle and fellow foodie Danny wanted to take my brother, Laura and I out to lunch before we left the DC area, so we decided to hit up this Vietnamese place in Falls Church called the Four Sisters. He had read about it in a magazine that the Washington Post put out that listed that top restaurants in the area, so we figured it was worth a shot.
Two words: FREAKING AMAZING!
The place was very cool... it looked like a really fancy restaurant with the all the decorations, lighting, music, etc. The first good sign I saw walking in was it was packed, not just with people, but packed with Vietnamese people. The next good sign was the menu was in both Vietnamese and and English (double bonus!).
We started off with the shrimp toast (the magazine said that is what they were famous for), which was very good. Even though it was deep fried and whatnot, it was soggy or greasy at all. I had vermicelli with shrimp and scallops (shown above), which was excellent. My brother had my usual choice at Vietnamese places (buon thit nuong), but he didn't finish it, so I got to eat off of his plate as well, and that was also very good. To polish it all off, we had 2 very large bowls of this dumpling/rice noodle soup which was out of this world.
For the quality and amount of food we got, it was very well priced (even though I didn't pay a dime... thanks Uncle Danny!). I will be definitely be stopping by next time I'm in the area!
I LOVE Lent... for some people Lent is a hassle, but for me, it basically a seafood holiday! Case in point, this garlic/butter shrimp pasta my Mom made for Friday's dinner. The shrimp were actually more like prawns. This is one of two pots of this stuff, and although you can't see from this angle, its a pretty deep pot. I must have had like 4 plates of this stuff, and it was amazing.
Great crowd last night... the Jays were very evenly matched, but pulled ahead at the end. I can't wait for the return game in Fairfax next season, only minutes away from my parent's house in Alexandria. Hopefully the boys will do well against ISU-Red while I'm away!
How many people do you know that can say they got to do this? For all you can eat prime rib sandwiches, open bar and a parking pass to the Qwest center for the game? I thought so...
Saw one of the greatest Jays of all time during half time, Nate Funk himself! I heard he has done very well for himself over in Europe (he and Anthony Toliver actually played on the same team over in Germany), and he certainly looked like he was ballin last night!
Too bad the Jays didn't look as good, choking the last 10 minutes of the second half to lose by a whopping 12! Its getting towards the end of the season, and hopefully they can fix their stuff on the defensive end (especially under the rim) before tournament time in March.
This is the view from my new seats in the lower bowl... absolutely fantastic! I have the best co-workers ever!
I actually went 1.5 hours before tip off just out of habit... not having to wait in line with the rest of my peers will definitely take some getting used to.
Funny story: I went to sit in them for the first time, and the Qwestapo usher came up to me and told me to go sit with the rest of the students in the student section. I whipped out my season ticket and said, "Not today sir!" Having not missed a home game this entire season, I guess the ushers knew who I was... I was touched. We had a good laugh about it and he congratulated me on my graduation.
Quiet possibly one of the greatest places on Earth.. what a way to start out the New Year!
For a mere $24.99, you have access to all you can eat pretty much everything, but living in land-locked Nebraska, I chose to attack the seafood. This is one of 3 buckets (which really isn't that much when you consider that crabs and mussels have a lot to them that you don't actually eat) that I filled up with the shells of shrimp, crabs and mussels. I could have easily stayed there and filled up 3 more buckets, but between my Mom and Laura, they were ready to go home after a mere 45 minutes. I really need to go back with my Uncles... they appreciate a good buffet!
Coon Skin Caps
Samurai Swords
An entire aisle of hood ornaments
Optimus Prime!
