Health Insurance, Illinois and Corruption? Who knew :-)

So, I went to the U of I's "briefing" on our (lack of) options… Our Governor decided for some reason to do away with the HMOs that we had for health insurance in favor of another one. Turns out that this other one costs the State and us more, and it is really only covering the Chicago, Springfield and Peoria areas… Oops. Well, there were some other "options", but they've been removed by a judge, so they're trying to rush through some 90 day extension of our current health plan before the Legislature's bill becomes law with or without the Governor's signature keeping all of the current providers in place for 2 years while an actual bidding process takes place… So, there might be an interruption of the good health plan while they sort these things out… Of course, the whole briefing this morning became irrelevant by noon, and so it's going to be a tremendous waste of time and money at a time when we can ill afford the loss of either. But so it goes…

 

Gaming, I decided to bring my Fleshtearers out to play in the league thinking that the Grey Knights would be crowded with 3-4 other lads picking them up recently, and I was a bit tired playing my Deathwing force… Powerful as it is, it is fairly boring one after a while… Not many models on the table, but it still wins a LOT of games for me. Played against one of the other 2 Blood Angels codex armies in the league… He played a more Mech force than I did with my Death Company themed force :-)… I got REALLY lucky that it did not end on turn 5 and I was able to pick up 2 critical kill points on turn 6 before time ran out. I'll probably have to change up the force a bit before next week since I plan at this point to be on the motorcycle… Nice luggage there, but somewhat limited space really. Still, should be able to throw something together…

 

Speaking of the bike, it's still running great, just looking for a "sound" solution for it at this point…. Something in an MP3 player I guess. Not sure if the old speakers still work, but that is a consideration. Looking very much forward to riding to work and parking ON campus, not a few miles out and catching a bus into the office…

 

Time to start selling off my ancient firearms… Tokerov, Nagant, Czech CZ-52, and Lugar for pistols and a whole mess of rifles… Federal and State/Local laws apply of course, but I'm sure the prices will be more than reasonable since I am pretty motivated to get rid of them… Oh, and loads of accessories and ammo… Contact me here or other places :-)…

New League…

Well, Joe is running the league, so it should be interesting… Near as I can tell, we're looking at a 200 point mini game and then an 1800 normal game… I'm switching back to my Fleshtearers for this league.. Not sure what I'll bring for the 200 point "patrol", but I'm looking at this for the 1800:

 

Librarian (Unleash Rage, Blood Lance?)    100

Terminator Assault Squad (3 TH/SS, 2 LC)    490

    Land Raider Crusader (EA/MM)

Scout Squad (10, ML, 5 SR, SGT w/SR/PF locator beacon)    200

Death Company (5, Jump packs, 2 PF/bolter)    225

DC DN (Drop Pod, Locator Beacon)    170

Baal Predator (HB sponsons)     145

Predator (AC, LC sponsons)    135

Vanguard Vet (5, PF and 4 power weapons, jump packs) 235

 

Leaves me 100 points, so 2 Attack bikes or a HB attack bike and a speeder maybe? Dunno, I'm really liking the attack bikes… A little light on "scoring" units since the DC cannot score, they're just there to kill things… Maybe put the Librarian in Terminator armor w/ Storm Shield and get one attack bike… Might be amusing…

 

On the bike front, just about done tuning her up and getting used to running at "road speeds", so 45-55 mph… Hopefully RT 45 will be done North of Tolono early this week before I mostly ride to work… Next year's parking tags go on sale the 16^th, so that's when I can park without worry about tickets, I hope…

Ah, June…

Well, GW's price increase hit about the same time as their change over to resin "finecast" (or as the lads from "Beasts of War" kept slipping up and calling it "finecost")… Bad timing more than anything, I mean I'm probably one of the few folks out there that actually understands about the whole price increase thing… I mean with the price of EVERYTHING going through the roof, especially fuel which ups all other prices for shipping, etc… So, the price increase I get. Not happy about it of course, but I'm probably not the "core customer" they are selling things to… Frankly, I already HAVE 6 full armies for 40K that I rotate through as I get bored with them in turn, so I'll not really be buying all that much anymore, certainly not on a large scale. I might get into Malifaux, or Kings of War, leaning heavily towards Malifaux as I've found a group that I think I can actually play there… We'll see. Just hoping for a game system that sticks around for a few years at least…

 

Work is… Well, a lot of work :-)…. Still waiting to find out what is going to happen with Health Alliance… Not looking good, I'll have to get my eye exams in this month before any odd changes hit… I'm used to seeing corruption in Government; I grew up in Joliet where the Outfit and/or the Machine ran everything… But even there, it was NOT this out in the open… We have a "bid" process that does not consider price? And does not follow the law requiring actual full coverage in terms of area at least, but "oops, there is no HMO in Champaign now"… A bit depressing, just watching the current Governor get away with this shit, especially with his predecessor on trial for what again? Oh yeah, corruption…

 

Bike is back working again! Looking like I'll be riding in to work a few times next week, but towards the end of next week it will be a regular thing… Still a slow leak in the rear tire, but that can be fixed I hope… So, I'll try the soapy water thing to see if I can find the source of the leak, and maybe that "slime" stuff work to plug it on a more permanent thing… We'll see.

 

Still finding weird random weapon things like high capacity magazines, random ammo and even another rifle I'd forgotten I had… So if anyone out there is looking for anything in this area, let me know…

Information Technology Specialist

So… Apparently that's what I am now :-)… I do wonder if I'll actually get my "Notification of Appointment" updated or if it will just be my next one… Wonder if I'll be transitioned from AP to "Civil Service", and how if at all this changes my situation… We're still seeing what our wonderful Governor has in store for us WRT our health care… Apparently, the State House and Senate have passed a bill rolling his changes back, but of course it all waits on him. The bill passed with "veto proof" majorities, and it does make one wonder who actually gains from the Governor's changes… So, the State will go to court to defend the Governor's changes, with everyone knowing full well they will likely lose the case and in any case it will all get rolled back by the legislature… A colossal waste of time and money with no clear winner really… I suppose the Republicans, assuming they can find someone to run against Quinn that doesn't shoot themselves in the foot since the last election was close and this should piss off a LOT of Dems down here…

 

Bike? Going quite well now… Turns out that the bike parking is NOT prorated, and it would be paying for a full year if I start now… But the 16^th of June is when next years go on sale and I can start then… So it looks like a few more weeks of riding to gain more familiarity and get used to the machine before I ride to work. It seems to be evening out and I think the gumout is clearing up the engine a bit… The gearing is a bit different than I would have assumed, and the top gear (5^th) started out at ~4000 RPM at ~40 MPH… Now it is hitting 45-50 MPH at 4000 RPM and getting better daily… Maybe it's just me getting more used to it, but I think it is clearing up nicely… So, just a bit longer I think… Still, it is a lot of fun taking it out and zipping about every night at least… Looking at MP3 players for the bike, and a lot of them come with remotes… Where in the fuck are you sitting on the bike that you'd need a remote to control the stereo on the vehicle? But then I'm just an Engineer, what would I know of these things…

 

Gaming… Looking like I'll be playing my Fleshtearers next… I'll be getting my Scout squad painted up since that was one of the things I never actually had back in 3^rd edition… Liking all the "Troops" selections that they have available, and I'll definitely be fielding my traditional Death Company, my new DC Dread I've converted and a few Assault squads… My random Rhino hulls all being fast, etc… Pretty sure the "linebacker" that is the Grey Knight trump would be an Assault Terminator squad… And I'll probably bring a Land Raider (Redeemer or Crusader) and maybe Gabriel Seth for the "Let's go forth and kill something" unit… Something "fun" at least…

May Ends…

So, May is coming to an end… New job, new bike, maybe I'll get to ride it to work soon… The 40K league ended, I have a few weeks to figure out what I'm playing next… Got a bit of painting done tonight, but it was just a few parts of random pieces like a Techmarine and Tech Priest Engineers… I might be able to throw together a weird IG list to field, but I definitely want the army to fit into the cargo rack/luggage of the bike, so that is a bit of a limit… Deathwing seems an obvious one since no matter what I have a very small force, but there are certain armies I simply cannot deal with… And it does get a bit boring playing the same thing all the time, so I guess I'll see where my painting takes me… Sad, but recently I have been painting some of my Rackham "Wolfen" figures… Ancient figures from a dead game, but still among my favorite armies I played. Sadly, the first one I could actually say was "fully painted" since I left the GT "circuit" back in 3^rd edition 40K… My Fleshtearers were really only "technically" painted to the 3 color minimum to get me into the tournament, so pretty basic stuff, nothing at all to get excited about. I'm getting better with some of the fur and shadow effects on the Wolfen, and since I used them as stand-in "Wolf Cavalry" when I tested that unit to conclude that they were every bit as broken and silly as they appeared to be on paper…

 

All in all, 40K is getting back to a somewhat frustrating point for me, and I think that a few weeks off will be a good thing for me. Not frustrating WRT the partners, they were great, the opponents by and large are fun to play against… There are a few minor exceptions, and my game does tend to get a LOT "sharper" against them to the point of simply destroying their armies with no regard for how fun the game is for either side. That does make it a less fun experience for me, but this is not the major factor I think… Really, I think the game itself is getting a bit stagnant for me. There are a small number of really good builds for most armies, and there are a small number of really powerful armies, or at least builds within those armies. IG might be a small exception to this as their book offers SO MANY cheap and powerful things that you can tweak some of the really powerful stuff a bit and still have a very much overpowered army hitting the table… Vets with BS 4, cheap melta and transports that can allow your whole squad (or at least the important ones) to move and shoot from inside the AV 12 box which itself has 2 decent heavy weapons? And the best skimmers in the game, probably… But even taking into consideration the really powerful builds like: IG Mech, DE Mech (Mike's stuff is REALLY powerful, to the point of I'm happy to just get a draw with my stuff… Usually he and I fight to a very bloody and close one, but his current list is really a good one) there is a very real limit on what gets played… Degenerating to almost a rock-paper-scissors sort of feel for me, making it fairly pointless to play and difficult to get excited about the prospect of a game… Maybe I'll break down and get some Malifaux stuff, but I am leery there… I don't want yet another dead game's miniatures haunting my basement shelves since I already have more than a few armies there… Chronopia, Confrontation, WFB, Battletech/Mechwarrior, the list goes on and on…

 

On the work silliness front, the State decided to drop our HMO… Should be fun, since it came out that the bidding was done without considering costs either to the State or to the people… Hint, both go up with the "winning bid", but somehow that was not considered in the bid process… Yes, makes my head hurt, usually corruption is not quite so obvious and public… And the winning bid won without those other legal requirements like actual coverage for all of the areas. So, as of now, we go from Health Alliance for the HMO to… Well, looks like we get our choice of crappy expensive coverage or… Well, that about sums it up at this point. Raises are at least a slight possibility, and with my move over to an actual IT department far more likely in the long term… But still, the work environment is getting worse all the time it seems, and I am not sure things are going to get better for a long time… On the plus side, I have a job, got promoted and things could be so much worse… :-) Remembering jobs where I lived in say, a desert, got shot at and stung by scorpions… But still it does seem like we as a University are sliding backwards a bit from year to year…

 

Motorcycle? Well, I fixed the tire, and have gotten one short ride in before the weather went to crap… That and RT 45 is pretty well torn up North of Tolono, and the "rough" pavement is really not fun to ride the bike on… Maybe I'm simply out of practice, but I'd prefer to avoid that if I can, thanks… So, some alternate routes will be researched and tested when I get back to being able to ride the Silverwing again…

Getting earlier all the time...

:-)  Came in for the 8:30 interview this morning, followed by a second one (different person)...  Weird, being on this side of the table, I've never seriously interviewed anyone for a job...  Usually, it was just a friend of a friend thing, or we needed "grunt labor" so literally anybody willing would do just fine...  But this is far different, and of course I cannot actually say much of anything until it's over, but it has been an excellent learning experience for me and I expect to be able to use these little tips for my next job searches (if any)...  Looks like I am scheduled for early mornings all week, might be able to escape for lunch with my wife Friday if things work out...

On the bike front, I tried refilling the tire yesterday, and the stem broke off...  So, confirms my suspicion that it was in fact the stem that was the source of the slow leak...  And the dry rotting made it weak enough to simply come off...  Looks like I'll be replacing that myself if I can...  Hopefully, since removing the rear tire is looking like a MAJOR pain...  But if it works, I should be good for quite a while...  And it will be another thing I've fixed (after breaking it admittedly) myself...  Still not seeing the whole Zen thing, but being able to fix the bike is nice...  Not nearly so nice as riding the bloody thing, but still...

Gaming, looking like 2 games for the Deathwing/Wolves tonight...  Maybe we'll even win one this time :-)  I'll have to stay on target, my partner did well last time, thinking he'll be fine again...

Wow, this is early...

:-)  Not used to the 8:30 meetings...  Small group today as well, this Friday seems especially deserted here on Campus...  And next week I have at least 3 more early meetings next week...  All important stuff, but guessing I'll be stocking up on energy drinks next week...

Motorcycle is running well, need to get the back tire fixed as the leak seems to be getting a bit worse...  Whatever, I have the little 12v air compressor and the bike itself actually has a "lighter" style 12v connection...  I'll have to clean it up a bit more, but she's looking pretty good... And it really feels good to get back on the road, probably getting back to highway travel by next week...

Gaming, we'll have the tournament again Monday, and my Deathwing will have to play it a bit more cautiously e games this week, the Wolves are more suited to the aggressive "assault" element.  2/3 of the games are objective games, so my lads sitting on objectives are really hard to remove...  We'll see how it works out...