Thursday, July 10, 2008
Finally
Oregon State Board of Nursing Verification Details as of: 07-10-2008 11:10:09 AM PDT
Name: UNDERHILL, BRIAN JAY
License Number: 200841550RN
Type: RN
Active: 07/10/2008
Expires: 06/28/2010
I don't even know what to say, except that it's about time...
Monday, July 07, 2008
New camera and old miniatures
So I bought a new camera a couple weeks ago - a Norscent DCS-1050 10.0 megapixel that fits nicely in a shirt pocket and ran only $90 at Buy.Com.
Anyway, I used it today to take some picks of some Necromunda miniatures I painted last year. I'm working on a Warhammer 40k Sororitas army, but don't have much paint time so it may be a while til I get pics up of those.
For those who care, each miniature is about 2" tall or thereabouts. If you look in the background of some of the pics, you can make out clothespins glued to a 4x4. I use clamps and clips to hold the miniatures while I paint them, and then they sit in the clothespins between paint coats.
I made the terrain as well. The barrels are ceramic and bought from a hobby store and then painted. The lean-to shelters are pieces of corrugated cardboard painted to look like metal, and the "plywood" on the lean-to is a piece of vinyl siding that had a neat wood-grain finish. The fire pit is made from pieces of balsa wood, twisted wire, and other bits all painted to look burned out.
Anyway, here's some thumbnails. Click on the pictures for a larger version.
I'll try to get the Sisters of Battle pics up when I get 'em painted!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
...and done.
Yesterday was RN Pinning and graduation. It's official now - no more RN school for me! YAY!
Now I have to set up a time for my State boards and pass that, then I can put "RN" after my name. You'll see it here first, I'm sure. :)
Monday, June 09, 2008
Done...
I just completed my last final in my last class in the nursing program. I'm done. In shock, and still suffering a little PTSD, but done.
YAHOO!!!!!
Sunday, June 08, 2008
No Principles Web Site
As most of you know, I've been playing lead guitar with a classic rock band called No Principles for more than a year now. Finally got around to setting up a web site for the band. It's a little sparse - just a blog and some dead-end links at the moment, but it's up.
You can check it out at http://www.noprinciples.com/
Monday, March 17, 2008
Twenty Years
Was looking through some stuff on my HDD today, and noticed I had scanned copies of my original letter to Steve Jackson Games, and Steve's reply, in regards to writing a "worldbook for GURPS detailing the world of the 1930's "pulp" style adventures." I probably don't need to point out that it was accepted and eventually became GURPS Cliffhangers, which went on to a second edition as well.
That was twenty years ago, believe it or not. I'm kinda floored by how quickly the time has passed.
Anyway, for anyone who's into that sort of minutiae and pointless trivia, I figured I'd post those letters here as a peek into my beginnings as a writer. You can click the pics to get the full sized image.
Note that the handwritten "Sent 2/22/88" notation scrawled on the original letter, was written at that time. I jotted the date on the letter, and kept a copy, so I'd have a record of my correspondence. This was, of course, back in the days of snail mail and mailing floppy disks with ASCII files and Word Perfect 4.0 files on them. Positively barbaric!
Anyway, it was a good trip down memory lane for me. I still remember when Steve phoned my house to tell me he liked the idea. I was playing GURPS at that exact time, in fact. We were playing GURPS Humanx, based on the writings of Alan Dean Foster. (Hm... wonder what ever happened to that book...).
Anyway, my wife at the time answered the phone, then turned to me and said, "It's Steve Jackson." One of my friends - Dave - was flabbergasted and I still remember his jaw dropping. My wife was all excited, I was nervous, and Theron - the fourth rounding out the game - looked confused. "Who's Steve Jackson?" he asked. Heh. Dave pointed at the name on the GURPS book.
It was kind of a surreal moment; my first big break.
Anyway, thanks for letting me reminisce. I promise not to be quite so nostalgic in my next post. :)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
I'm Not Gettin' Soft
Term's almost done, finally. I finished the last of my clinical rotations - EVER - last week, and have two finals coming up on Monday and Tuesday. I can't believe how fast this term went, but it seems like it was VERY busy. I'm like Huey Lewis these days:
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not gettin' soft
All I want is a couple days off
- Couple Days Off, Huey Lewis and the News
Only two more days and I have a week of rest. Ya-frickin'-hoo.
Then next term I'll have theory on Thursdays, and 156 hours of preceptoring to do. I'll probably be at a boys' correctional facility on the coast. Preceptoring means, in essence, working at the facility as an RN, under a preceptor who monitors you and reports back to the college. Shouldn't be terribly hard, despite it being full-time work for a few weeks. Do-able, though.
Then - amazingly enough - I should be done and ready to take state boards. Here's hoping and here's to the end of nursing school at last!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Carrying On
So here I am, still playing lead guitar (and keys and blues harp) with No Principles, a local classic rock band. It's a great gig, and a great band, and it's got some great people in it as well. :) I've discovered that playing rock and roll, and being forced to play outside my comfort zone, has turned me into a better guitar player than ever before.
Years ago, I played as much as five nights a week for months on end, but I was within my comfort zone, playing familiar tunes I knew - many of which were not difficult to play. The tougher ones I just left out of the mix, because - as leader of the band - I had a lot to do including reading the crowd, picking songs, fronting the live shows, booking gigs, etc. So I just plodded along as a decent guitar player and called it good.
These days, the band goes right past the "low hanging fruit" and picks songs that require some serious guitar chops. I complain and rant and rave, but nobody listens. They just wait patiently for my country-western-taught fingers to pick up on the Ted Nugent and Neal Schon licks with songs such as Strangelhold and Stone in Love.
In the end, it's all for the better. I've become a substantially better lead player - at age 45 and after 20 years off - than I ever was. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Our latest addition is the old Kansas tune, Carry On (My Wayward Son). It's taken some work, but we'll be debuting it this weekend at the Regent in Longview, Washington. Anybody that feels like popping in, drop me a line and I'll give ya directions. Meantime, I've got a bit more work to do on the song; I play piano, organ, and lead guitar at various times through the song.
Now if I could just work my harp into this song someplace, I'd be playing every instrument I have on stage...
Monday, January 14, 2008
Lackluster Movies
I just finished watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and something occurs to me. It seems there is no real heart in movies any more. They're all about big budget special effects (or, in the case of FF:RotSS, low budget special effects), action, and exorbitantly paid actors.
I'm not just talking about average action flicks like this one, but I've been sorely disappointed in several movies recently, including Transformers, Ghost Rider, Spiderman 3, Next, Live Free or Die Hard, Pirates of the Carribean 3, and more. It's not that they're bad movies, it's just that they're seriously lacking in any substance.
Before someone points out that they're all "action" movies, which don't need substance, I'd like to point out some previous "action" movies with great plots, dialogues, and/or atmosphere: the original Die Hard, Ridley Scott's Alien, it's action blockbuster sequel, Aliens, and on the superhero front, the original Batman was - at the time - an amazing movie. Let's not forget the original Star Wars movies (comparing them, especially, to the big budget special effects disasters Episodes I-III), Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. And what about Band of Brothers and it's cousin, Saving Private Ryan as compared to last year's flop, Flyboys.
I dunno, maybe I'm jaded and demand more from my movies these days than flash and glitter. But before I sign off, let me point out something:
Back in the 1960s there were two science fiction television series that aired at roughly the same time: Star Trek and Lost in Space. The latter spent tons of money on "cutting edge" special effects, but spent little buying up mediocre scripts. It was a popular escapist series at the time, but today is nowhere to be found - special effects don't make for a dynasty.
Star Trek, on the other hand, settled for tissue paper in the front of camera lenses and poured their money into good scriptwriters like D.C. Fontana, Harlan Ellison, David Gerrold, and the like. Today, Star Trek lives on - despite cheesy special effects - because we know and love the characters and their storylines.
Something to be learned from that? I think so.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Back to the Grind
Next week marks the beginning of my final year at school (I hope!) and I'm doing it on the Oregon Coast. Nope, not quite on the beach itself, but my temp apartment does have a gorgeous view of the Columbia River right out my front door. Wonder if the boats going by will blow their fog horns and keep me up...
Anyway, I have a short 2-day class this week, and so far I like it. It looks like the homework/careplan load will be lighter, but the tests will be heavier. I can handle that - I test well.
In other news, I'll be applying at Astoria Fire to be a volunteer there through the next nine months, mostly to keep up my OTEP and firefighting drill time. It's a different state, but the techniques are mostly the same so the training should transfer back to my home department without a hitch.
I'll try and get some pictures up of the Columbia and the apartment when I have time.
