Thanksgiving

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Andy

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had as nice of a holiday as I have. It started out a bit rough; New England got hit with a fairly nasty winter storm on Wednesday night, which brought snow, ice, and wind. As a result, many people around the area were without power. Fortunately, we kept ours. Gwen made a huge turkey this year; more than 21 pounds! Suffice to say, there was plenty to eat.

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Tier IX Fun, Continued

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Andy

It has been some time since I’ve posted about my World of Tanks exploits. The last time I mentioned the game, I told you all how I had just unlocked a Tier IX medium tank, the E 50. Since then, however, I’ve shifted focus and have been playing my German heavy tanks a lot more. As a result, just last week I finally unlocked the E 50’s bigger brother, the E 75 Heavy Tank. Behold!

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Yurt Alert!

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Andy

Hello everyone!

A lot has happened since I last updated. First of all, I would like to extend my gratitude for all the appreciation I received on Veterans Day. Gwen and I had a great day on Tuesday; we went to Applebee’s for lunch, an then we finally got around to seeing the USS ALBACORE museum. This was a very interesting trip, especially for someone like me who is a student of warship construction and evolution. Walking through that small ship, it was easy to spot advancements that were the antecedents of later designs, like the 688 SSNs I’ve served on. I definitely recommend a visit to anyone passing through Portsmouth!

Two weekends ago, Gwen and I finally made our trip out to the Harmony Hill Retreat Center, located in up-state New York. We had won a weekend get-away there back in the spring at the Norfolk Dolphin Scholarship auction, and we just finally got around to using it! The retreat center was about 5 hours from Portsmouth, just past Schenectady, NY. The area is very rural indeed, much more so than what I am used to where I grew up in Indiana; most of the roads in the immediate area were gravel, so we were off the beaten path a bit! We wound up staying in a type of shelter called a Yurt, hence the post title. Perhaps “shelter” is a bit of an understatement; as you can see from the pictures below, this was practically a fully-fledged house, only a bit less solid. We passed a very enjoyable weekend exploring the grounds, which included a couple of trails and a brick “labyrinth.” We also played a couple of rounds of Ticket to Ride, one of those rare boardgames that we both enjoy! In particular, we were experimenting with the dice expansion on the India map. We both liked the addition of the dice; it tended to make the game move a little faster, and it removed the “Train Card Cold War” issue that we’ve seen crop up in the game, where multiple players are both trying to hoard cards of a particular color. All in all, we were sad to see the weekend end.

Other than that, I’ve been busily working away on the ship, but I have had some time to do some reading and some gaming. I’ll save those topics for another post, though. Until next time!

 

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Long Weekend!

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Andy

Just had a great weekend! Despite having duty on Saturday, I was able to spend yesterday and today having fun with Gwen, my friend Mike, and his wife. We played a couple of games, including King of Tokyo and Core Worlds, and in general just had a good time getting caught up. I’ll be batching it for a few days though, as Gwen flew down to Virigina ahead of her friend’s wedding next week.

Other than that, I’ve been busy at work, as usual. I’ve made some time here and there to play around with some of my models, though. I finally got my first game of Firestorm Armada 2.0 in, though! I played at a store called Toy Soldier Games in Amesbury, MA, which is about 25 minutes from the shipyard. I had a lot of fun, and finally managed to get my Directorate fleet into action. I’ve had these models for 3 years already, but had never gotten them onto the table! Here is a shot from the game:

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I’ve also been able to do some modeling, though that has slowed down to a trickle lately due to being busier at work. I’m working on some new models for my Prussian fleet for Dystopian Wars. In the last year or so, a lot of new units have hit for the game, and I’m a bit behind thanks to deployment, etc. Here is where I stand so far:

2014-09-12 21.11.27I’m hoping to have at least these three minis done by the end of the week, but we’ll see!

Until next time!

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Tier IX Fun!

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Andy

Ever since we’ve gotten settled up here in Portsmouth, I’ve been back into World of Tanks again. I had gotten away from it when I was on deployment (it’s hard to get internet when you are in the briney deep) obviously, and even after I got back it was kind of hard to get back into; in the 7 months I was away from the game, a lot of things were changed with updates that significantly changed how the game is played.

However, I’ve been bitten by the bug again, an after a long time of working towards it I finally unlocked my first Tier IX tank, the E-50:

E50

This tank is one of a series of prototype designs that Germany began during WWII that were intended to serve as the next generation of tanks after the Tiger, Tiger II, and Panther. However, the steadily worsening war situation meant that none of these beasts ever actually saw production. Fellow tank enthusiasts will no doubt notice the “family resemblance” here between the E-50 and Panther series, which is natural as the E-50 was developed from those designs. It will take me a while to get to the final tank in the line, the Tier X E-50M. This tank is a further development of the E-50, with heavier armor, a bigger gun, etc.

In fact, I might end up backing off the German medium tanks, and start focusing on the German heavies more. I’m getting closer and closer to my second Tier IX, which will be another E-series, the E-75. I’m hoping to have it unlocked by the end of the month!Until next time…

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Anime Round-up 2

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Andy

Hey all! It’s been a while since I’ve talked about what Anime I’ve been watching, so I figured it was time for another installment of my Anime Round-Up. This new kick of watching anime has continued more or less unabated since I discovered the joys of Crunchy Roll. Kill la Kill has long since finished, having concluded with a very satisfying ending. The whole series is very over the top, and as I mentioned before the copious amounts of nudity in the show (even though it is non-sexual and non-graphic) will be a definite turn-off for many. Continue reading →

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Finally Settled!

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Andy

Been a few weeks!

Since my last post, I spent a couple of weeks alone down in Virginia, then a week underway. But I’m finally home now! We are mostly settled into our new place; most of the boxes are unpacked, and the furniture in place. Mostly what is left is putting up knick-knacks and pictures. Weather has been pretty nice up here, though in a few weeks it will be pretty chilly, and the first snows will arrive in October!

One of the things we’ve discovered is that there is a ton of great restaurants up here; downtown Portsmouth has all kinds of bars and taverns, one of my favorites being the Thirsty Moose. Kittery has a lot to chose from as well; wood-fired pizza, Thai, and an excellent Indian restaurant to name a few. And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the lobster and seafood houses! Slowly but surely, Gwen and I have been exploring these new eateries. This is one of the upsides of moving so much; you get to explore and try all kinds of new things at each place you live. Of course, then you have to up and leave all your new favorites when it is time to move again!

Until next time…

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In Limbo

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Andy

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So, as I posted a while back, Gwen and I have a new place up in New Hampshire. However, due to a quirk in the change of homeport process, I’m stuck down here in Norfolk last week and this week by myself. I decided to spring for a hotel room and a rental car so that I can not live on the ship and at least have a way to get around! This has been a little bit of a surreal experience for me; I really miss Gwen and the pets, but there is a part of me that is enjoying batcheloring it up for a little while. In some ways, it feels like I’m stealing time; I know that we have already moved, and that my life isn’t really in Norfolk anymore, but I’m still here going to all our favorite restaurants and the like. All in all, I’ll be happy once this is over and I’m back home with Gwen again! At least I can take solace in the fact that I was able to help Gwen with the unpacking at the new place. In fact, both my parents and her parents came up to help us, which we are very grateful for!

I haven’t had a whole lot of free time the last week or so; things have been busy on the SCRANTON as usual. Mostly, I’ve been listening to a new book, Castles of Steel by Robert Massie. I’m really enjoying this book so far; there is a lot of interesting historical detail on the naval war of WWI that I hadn’t encountered before. I’ve also been playing two games on my Ipad; Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet, and World of Tanks: Blitz. The former is a game based on the Honor Harrington universe, while the later is the iOS version of World of Tanks. I’m really grateful for the latter, as my poor old laptop can’t handle WOT since they upgraded the graphics. I’ll probably make a more detailed post on these later.

In other news, the FY 2015 URL Lieutenant Commander list is out, and your’s truly is on it! I’m excited to have made the list, although it will be more than a year before I am promoted thanks to the way promotions are phased in.

Until next time!

 

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Our Visit to Scranton, PA

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Andy

IMG_0236Hello everyone! Gwen and I are in the process of moving to Portsmouth, NH (you can see pictures our our next house a couple of posts back). We decided to stop off for a day at Scranton, PA to take a look at the Steamtown National Historic Site and the rest of the USS SCRANTON’s namesake city. Continue reading →

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Dystopian Wars 2.0!

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Andy

I just received what will probably be the biggest tabletop gaming release (for me anyway) of the year: The second edition of Dystopian Wars, from Spartan Games. This has become my favorite miniatures game, and the new edition looks like it is going to be a blast! I’ve got a couple of posts up on my other blog at Man Battlestations, so check them out if you want to read more!

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Dystopian Wars 2.0 Unboxing & Impressions

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