Warlord... Nefsokar... Thoth

Here is a fig I did a little bit ago for my Warlord army. At the rate I paint I will never be done. I do like the theme of this army though. Now I just need to learn how to kill giant flying chickens that the dwarves like to use. The detail after a while was killing me so some of it I speed up just to get the fig done.
Cheers,
John...

Drinking Korean Alcohol

Sometimes I hate Korean dramas because they always make me cry! Argh! And when the actors and actresses get depressed they always start drinking! Hah! So of course, what they have I mus try ^_^ So first off I tried was soju.This is the most popular and cheapest alcohol served in Korea. In the UK, they only sell the original flavour it's around £6 a bottle (a bit expensive for a small bottle). It's very, very strong, just like taking a vodka shot... but it felt 10 times more lethal! 

The next drink I tried was this blackbean soya drink... It tasted like that blackbean soyabean milk I posted earlier. Can't remember the price though...

Next one (I have shown a pic of this before when I went to Arirang) is Hite, I'm not sure if this popular in Korea but I love it! A little cheaper than soju and the blackbean drink ^_^.

Last drink I tried is this wine. It cost £5. I haven't finished it yet, but it is pretty strong stuff.

If you want to try Korean alcohol you can get soju in China Town and Japan Centre. But the best place to get Korean food (although a fairly expensive place) is Centre Point food store which is along St. Giles High Street (opposite ASSA)...


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staying connected.

Skype helps you communicate with people worldwide and save on voice calls.   Skype can be used to build and maintain business relationships, or allow colleagues to collaborate and work more closely with each other when in virtual teams.

Skye is also great for working mothers and fathers who travel frequently for business.  I personally have recently been using skype to connect with my sister and niece who are in Germany for the next few months.     Skyping with children can be difficult.    Here are some tips that I've learned from my experience, and others in my office have shared with me.

Skyping with children

1. Pick your moment: Kids don’t like to engage if they are hungry, tired or otherwise engaged, and time zone differences will be something to consider here. Watching TV or eating breakfast is far more important that staring into a camera.
2. Prep them: Get them excited and build the moment. And prep the grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles too. Explain that the children may not sit and talk like adults, make sure they listen as well as talk, so they don’t drown out little voices. Set all the equipment up first and do a trial run just before to check it’s all working. Pre-schoolers have no patience with tech that doesn’t just work.
3. Involve them in planning: little kids will be much more likely to engage if they are talking about something that is important to them that day/week (a picture they have drawn, new shoes they got for school) and especially if they have chosen the topic themselves. If they are not communicating verbal yet try using a toy.  I kept one of my nieces rattles so I would help keep her attention on the camera.
4. Keep it short, sweet and often: Better to chat for five or ten minutes a week, than try to have long conversation for half an hour.
5. Show them how it all works: point out where the camera is, set up the mic, even put a photo of the grandparents (or Mickey Mouse, or their favourite toy) above / around the camera so they talk to that and make eye contact, rather than at the screen.
6. Keep ‘em busy: If they aren’t ready to talk directly to the camera, set it all up so they are busy playing or drawing at the table, and let the grandparents watch them do that. This takes the pressure of them to ‘talk…now’

What are some of your tips or tricks for engaging skype chats?

Bizarre Oddities from Jacob's

I think if you have been reading my blog you can tell I like to snack ¬_¬ which I know is bad... I'm a bad geek! Whenever I go food shopping, I am always in the snack aisle to look at the healthy and the bad sections. I've tried boring rice cakes and those low calorie stuff but nothing beats a real snack. ^_^ ... chocolate, crisps and biscuits... (I really don't snack that much, but I just like to see what's new and try it out!).

Here's something new I found in the snack aisle! 

JACOB's Oddities! - Smoky bacon and Cheese flavour only

Resealable sticker available on the back of the packet

7 odd shapes available

These are relatively new. There are two flavours cheese and smoking bacon. At the moment, they are selling them in minipacks, multipacks and single bigger sizes.

What's fun and odd about these are the funny shapes they come in. It's like seeing the funny shapes of spaghetti hoops that you can get in a tin. Here's a close up of them!

Duck or Chicken?

Camera

Human being

Fetch that bone!

Ring ring - the telephone is going

?? ?? Vase ?? ??

Spacecraft!

They taste ok. Just like normal savoury biscuits but because the packet I bought is so big or these oddities are so small, I haven't finished them :( ... At least they have a resealable sticker!! ^_^ 

The Mascot Moment

1 day to go!!!

I know I have said in a previous post that the Olympic Mascots Mandeville and Wenlock are ugly (and they still are), but I just couldn't resist taking pictures (using my phone camera) of these ones along the River Thames. I walked along the river between Tower Bridge to Westminster Bridge within an hour stopping several times to take pictures. I am a fast walker when I have the energy (but my friend can walk twice as fast than me!). 

One or two of them were cute in their different costumes... but they are still ugly with their one eye. Children surrounded these little monsters before I could take a shot. I guess they are used to seeing them by now since they are all over the place in London ^_^ ...

Wenlock

Pirate Wenlock

Wenlock again!

Mandeville

What's with Wenlock - there are so many Wenlock's!!

This one is my favourite version of Wenlock!!!!

Argh! Wenlock again!! :P

And finally here's another Mandeville!

Well the adults can't win everything on designs and whatnots! 
Go and see them before the Olympics and Paralympics end!!

Mongo!!

Well I finally finished this big BRUTE!  Love this fig SOOOO much.  Just a great sculpt.  Hope to put this mamma jamma on the table top and watch him wreck some faces with his big blocks!

Here are the pics.

and a creepy headshot... just cause :) :P

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-Grim

Stay tuned, the Beastmen project will be commencing shortly.

My Pre-Olympic Fever Moment

Argh! 4 days to go and I think I'm suffering from pre-Olympic fever. There's so much excitement going around (and some unexcited people as well). But because I got to see the Olympic torch on Saturday I think pre-Olympic fever has struck!

I went out on Sunday just to capture Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings as well as to capture that moment in time and also picture the mascots along the Thames, which you will see in a later post...

Tower Bridge - close up

Tower Bridge

Unfortunately my camera's battery decided to end its life on me after the Tower Bridge shots, and I forgot to take my spare battery, but luckily I had my phone on me to take this next picture - just for the fun of it!

Ducks sitting around near the London Eye ^_^ - they weren't afraid of us humans!!

The New London Bus with 3 doors

Oh, I didn't realise the new London buses were in use! I saw two or three of them when walking along Shaftesbury Avenue towards China Town...

They have 3 doors! The front entry door, the middle exit/entry door and the back open entry/exit - this door being like the old bus routermasters ^_^ ... It's a cool design... And I think I spotted a bus conductor (who doesn't need to check fares or tickets!). It's almost like the old days!

I must get on one of them one day! ^_^

Here's some info from trusty old Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bus_for_London

Update 14/09/2012
Blimey! These new routemasters are really expensive! £315,000 each. £180 million to buy 600! Hmmmmmmmmmmm..... Expensive London!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19599945


Update 24/07/2013
So as the new bus is getting popular I stepped onto one whilst going to Camden Town... heheh... Here's an update of what these buses are like...

The top part has air conditioning so you can't open the windows. The seats are very spacious unlike the old routemasters.

There's a new button. Pretty and round!

Obviously there's the back stairs. Unlike the old ones these are spacious, flat, and you won't fall flat on the floor...

The bottom looks spacious just like the other buses we see in London. There's even space for prams and trolleys! Can you see the front and middle door? There's air con in the bottom part too!! Yay!!

 Here's the back entrance...

There's a bus conductor by the way!! And here's the bus from the back and front... :D

A Pre-Olympic Moment in Stratford

It's 6 days until the London Olympics start and so my mother and I decided to go and check out Stratford before it got busy next week. Thankfully it wasn't a stressful journey AND it didn't rain...! We got the Jubilee Line from London Bridge. Stopped off at Canary Wharf. Then took the Dockland's Light Rail (DLR) towards Stratford...

DLR from Canary Wharf - not our train

Window cleaners on top of Canary Wharf DLR Station

2 minutes to go! - Platform 3 is the one to go to the Olympic Park...

Please don't forget to swipe your Oyster card (if you are using a pay-as-you-go one)... I couldn't find the machine on the platform so had to go back downstairs and I found it by the staircase! These little machines are VERY HARD to spot...

Don't forget to swipe your card at the bottom of the stairs!!!!
And then swipe again at the station you get off!!!!

When we were on the DLR, we saw the stadium! And thankfully we took pictures as when we got to the village, it was blocked off by security...

The Olympic Stadium - DLR view

Don't know what this is... But it looks funny

Back of a building - don't know which arena this is

At Stratford Station

We had to take another DLR train to Stratford International... I had to swipe my Oyster card again (that's an extra fee!), so I advise if you are going to Stratford International and you haven't exited Stratford Station yet, don't swipe your card just yet!!!! Here's the Olympic Village entrance at Stratford International which is heavily secured. Only those with a badge hanging around their necks can enter!

Team GB's Flats in the Olympic Village?

Olympic Village Entrance - No Entry to the public...

So back to Stratford Station we go... We got off and went into the Stratford Centre to get to the bus stop going back to Central London...

Stratford Centre

Stratford Station

Westfield Shopping Centre

Love the painting on the side of the building - even if it is a commercial for Gillette!

But suddenly, (I think my mother and I were very, very lucky) we both got the chance to see the Olympic Torch flame being exhanged!!! :-O It was a moment of awe....! Wow! We really didn't know that this was going to happen - it was all by chance!!

Police on bikes securing the torch

Truck with the photographers and camera crew towed at the back

Exchange of the Olympic Torch flame!! - Sorry don't know who 
the torchbearers 68 & 69 are... :-S

The photographers and crowd snapping away!

Finally we got on a bus 25 towards Oxford Circus, and I spotted the ugly mascot in old English style clothing near St Paul's Cathedral... ^_^

The mascot near St Paul's Cathedral

If you decide to go to Stratford - plan it well, and maybe get there early! It was a wonderful day today! (^_^)v