Misc. Musings–October 2013 | It Came From The Nerd Cave

Yes Dear. Of course I love to hear all about your hobby crap.

What up Nerds? Just sitting here on the couch watching Bama stomp Arkansas like a flaming bag of dog poop on the front porch and pondering what’s up next for Operation Get Off Your Butt. Thought I’d think out loud and offer a few tid-bits for my seven loyal readers.

Working it out in the Nerd Bunker

Made some good progress in the Bunker over the last few days. If you recall the sorry state of my model kit stash, then you’ll hopefully be impressed with the new and improved version. I got all the charred/nasty boxes chunked and the kits re-boxed in plastic shoe boxes. I even got them labeled. Here’s a pic I sent to my wife the other day so she could bask in the styrene glory with me:

Le Kit Stash

I said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. And it was good.

I finally got around to picking up a shop light for the Bunker. I went with a 4-tube 48 1/2 inch fluorescent fixture from Utilitech purchased from Lowes. I put in four tubes rated as “sunlight” and I’m pretty happy. It’s a huge difference to go from one bare 75 watt incandescent bulb to this. It looked like a KGB interrogation chamber before and now I think I’m ready to perform minor surgeries.

This particular light plugs into an outlet, avoiding the need to monkey with wiring or have an electrician do so. I tried using a light socket/outlet adapter but the thing seemed pretty sketchy (safety-wise), so I ditched it and just plugged the light into the wall.

The fixture went together easily and my only gripe was the phrase, “mounting hardware included” on the box. Something told me that wouldn’t include hooks for the ceiling but I trusted. And I lost. It does include a chain to hang the fixture but no hooks were to be found, which delayed installation until I could get back to Lowes. All in all, took about 15 minutes to install, several of which were occupied with Diet Mountain Dew breaks and me climbing the step ladder very carefully.

Have you checked the app store?

I recently talked about how I like to keep a few Hobby Lobby 40% off one regular-priced item coupons in my wallet…in case the need to shop strikes on the way home. And while I consider myself semi-tech savvy, I totally failed to check to see if Hobby Lobby has an app. They do. And it has a coupon code so you don’t need to clip coupons from the newspaper or off their website. Just pull it up and show it to the cashier. Now if they would just stock that Polar Lights 1/350 U.S.S. Enterprise kit, I’d be a coupon-having, iPhone-flashing, happy camper.

Pack your bags…we’re going on a guilt trip

This probably falls into the Navel Gazing category, but I thought I’d talk about it briefly. I was sitting in the Nerd Bunker early this afternoon. I had my new light on, the door shut (to keep out any hairy eight-legged freaks that might pass an open door and say, “Hmmmm…that looks like a cozy environment in which for me to move”), and sweet rock music blasting out the radio.

I have a box of Warhammer, 40K, and Reaper miniatures blister packs that got roached in our fire. The minis are in fine shape but the packages are toast. So I was sitting here rocking out to Kiss, Van Halen, and Motley Crue while I bagged my little guys in their very own individual plastic bags. And other than the memory of the fire that necessitated me doing what I was doing, life was pretty good.

And then, because I just can’t be happy…because I have to find the glass-half-empty angle on life, it occurred to me that while I was enjoying the moment, I could probably get to liking this too much.

The Nerd Bunker, in case you missed it, is located in an exterior storage room on the back of our house. You have to go outside to get there, so it’s not even like a basement workshop where people can easily poke their heads through the door and bug you. Heck, you can’t even hear anything going on in the house–no TV, no screams. Nothing. It’s a little bit like my personal sensory-deprivation chamber.

And I started thinking. Fall is here. Daylight Savings is about to go bye bye. Yard work is just about over. I can certainly envision many an evening hour being wiled away in the Bunker modeling, watching DVDs…Heck, there’s even room to set up a small, Advanced Squad Leader scenario well beyond the pitter patter of little kitty feet.

Now that’s not to say my 8 year-old son won’t be in there with me some of the time. But if you have kids, you know they can sometimes be…shall we say…talkative. If you don’t have kids, then check out this clip from Uncle Buck to get an idea of what my life is like pretty much anytime my son is in the room. Sometimes you just want quiet and freedom from inane questions. And yes, the rock and roll music counts as quiet.

So, in a nutshell, I haven’t really spent any time in there but I’m already feeling guilty. What am I going to feel like when I roll out there after dinner one Tuesday night and look up to find it’s nearly midnight? Ugh.

Well, that’s about it for me tonight. Until next time…stay nerdy my friends.