the blue frog says...

Colossal Miniatures!

BigBlueFrog — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:28:36 +0000

Monday night I picked up my case of Paizo‘s Pathfinder Battles Heroes and Monsters roleplaying miniatures by WizKids. The case contains four bricks, and each brick holds nineteen boosters; three large boosters and sixteen small boosters. I’ve been opening one brick every night. I opened the third brick last night. This is what I’ve got so far.

Heroes & Monsters Set List

Common Uncommon Rare

#1 Goblin Warrior (Red) (2)
#2 Goblin Hero (Red) (2)
#3 Goblin Warrior (Blue) (2)
#4 Goblin Hero (Blue) (2)
#5 Orc Brute (3)
#6 Orc Warrior (3)
#7 Skeleton (1)
#8 Watch Guard (2)
#9 Watch Officer (2)
#10 Lizardfolk Champion (2)
#11 Zombie (2)
#12 Giant Spider (1)
#13 Wolf (2)
#14 Venomous Snake (2)
#15 Mummy (1)
#16 Human Rogue (2)
#17 Human Ranger (2)
#18 Elf Wizard
#19 Half-Elf Cleric (2)
#20 Dwarf Fighter (1)
#21 Human Druid (2)
#22 Gnome Fighter (3)
#23 Dire Rat (3)
#24 Gargoyle (2)
#25 Half-Orc Barbarian (1)
#26 Spectre
#27 Seelah, Human Paladin (2)
#28 Werewolf (2)
#29 Medusa (2)
#30 Minotaur (2)
#31 Ogre (1)
#32 Troll (3)
#33 Ettin
#34 Chimera
#35 Manticore (1)
#36 Giant Caveweaver Spider (1)
#37 Frost Giant (1)
#38 Succubus (1)
#39 Lich (1)
#40 Vampire (1)

So the only ones I’m missing are the Elf Wizard, the Spectre, the Ettin and the Chimera.

So far, I’m calling the Druid “Log Lady” after the woman on Twin Peaks who carried around the log all day.

I have eight goblins and six orcs, but only one skeleton. Hoping the fourth brick has some more skeletons. I wouldn’t mind a few more spiders, too. Medium spiders are good troops for the Big Baddies.

I’ve also been keeping my eyes peeled for discount minis. I found these three dinosaurs for a dollar each at the local… dollar store!

Once I put them on bases and repaint them, most people won’t even notice the difference, and they’re close enough to the correct scale to pass for Paizo or Wizards of the Coast minis. I also want to try my hand at creating my own minis from polymer clay or epoxy. I figure I’ll start large and simple, like spiders and worms, and work my way down to the human forms at 28-30mm, which is the scale for most roleplaying minis.

More to come, as I open the final brick of Paizo minis and scavenge the dollar stores and toy stores for more treasures.

Hair!

BigBlueFrog — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:50:59 +0000

Just an update on my hair. I’m letting it grow out for charity. I haven’t picked one yet, but I’ve got time. None of the charities take less than 8-10 inches of hair, so it will be at least six months before I’ve got enough to donate. It’s been about six months since I started letting it grow. My last haircut was in October.

More pics to come, as it gets longer.

Art Ally of the Timothy Plan: Lies and Hypocricy

BigBlueFrog — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:02:50 +0000

I found this in an article by Chris Woodward on One News Now, the propaganda arm of Christian hate group the American Family Association. Art Ally of the Timothy Plan, an investment fund created by Ally to allow Christians to invest in a mutual fund that followed “Biblical principles,” states that:

There is no way in the world I would ever recommend anybody invest in Facebook, either on the IPO or on down the road, because this has become an electronic superhighway that is full of abuse, garbage, pedophiles, hackers — it goes on and on and on.

He goes on to say that Facebook is “addictive.” I have no problem with that. The problem comes when Ally denies that the Timothy Plan has an official Facebook presence, saying that he is, however, “examining the option of getting the company involved in other social networks.” If this is true, then why is there a button at the bottom of the official Timothy Plan home page linking to their official Facebook page?

Ally and the Timothy Plan should practice as they preach, and “Come out from among them and be separate” (2 Corinthians 6:17). They should shut down their Facebook page and remove the link from their homepage immediately.

Editor’s Note: The site has been revised, and the link and button for Facebook have been removed.

Resurrection Day

BigBlueFrog — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:44:59 +0000

Easter weekend, I was told by a couple of people to have a happy “Resurrection Day.” This is the first I’ve ever heard of Resurrection Day, and it seemed like American Evangelicals were busy again rebranding another holiday. Turns out I was right. I checked with some friends, and the pagan background of Easter, known to just about every religious scholar and skeptic for centuries, is finally coming to light in Suburban Evangelistan. Apparently the lack of understanding persists in at least one way: Easter was still celebrated, albeit under its more pious name, on the first Sunday following the full Moon after the Vernal Equinox, just like it has been for ages. Christians can dress it up however they want, but it’s still a pagan holiday. Whether it’s plants popping out of the ground or saviors popping out of tombs, the story is still the same. It’s all about the rebirth of the world after the three-month “death” of winter.

At least if they’re going to rebrand Easter, they should be more specific. “Resurrection Day” neglects to point out which dead god has been resurrected. The equinox is rife with them. Even the original Easter — Eostare — has been linked with Ishtar-Inanna, the Babylonian impaled-on-a-stick-for-three-days-then-resurrected god(dess). The only thing novel about Jesus’ resurrection seems to be that Christians think it’s novel.

The Babylonian Dying and Resurrected Ishtar-Inanna

Railroad company logo design evolution

BigBlueFrog — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:36:06 +0000

Found this amazing set of railroad company logo designs by date. Makes me want to design some logos.

The True Cost of an iPhone

BigBlueFrog — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:08:48 +0000

Created by MBAonline.com

Don’t Mess With OCD!

BigBlueFrog — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:38:52 +0000

So yesterday my obsessive-compulsive need to save EVERYTHING payed off — yet again — as the home office tried to throw me under the bus. Tech support was in a flurry because our old web server went down, and I had hosted some iframe source pages on that server. That meant the big project I’ve been working on for several weeks was singing “Daisy” and everybody was pointing their fingers at me for hosting on the old server. I went back and found emails where I had BEGGED for direct access to our new web server and been repeated denied access.

So remember: every time you point a finger, there are three pointing back at you, and someone may have documentation to back up those fingers.

Upgraded to 3.3.1.

BigBlueFrog — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:14:44 +0000

I’ve upgraded my WordPress site to the newest version, v3.3.1. I’m giving myself a pat on the back for another successful upgrade.

Outside of Space, Time and Reason

BigBlueFrog — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:13:11 +0000

I’ve been listening to a lecture by A.E. Wilder Smith on Time and Creation, available at www.swrb.com (Puritan Videos). In this lecture, Dr. Wilder-Smith says that God created both space and time. My question is this: where was God, and what was he doing, before he created space and time?

Larry Taunton is Ignorant of History, Philosophy.

BigBlueFrog — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:10:32 +0000

I just got through reading The Birmingham News’ article Birmingham’s Larry Taunton touts ‘The Grace Effect’ to counter atheist arguments on al.com. Larry Taunton is either ignorant of history, or he just likes to lie for Jesus. If he had any knowledge of the former Soviet Union and its dissolution, he’d realize that freethought of the kind exhibited by prominent atheists like Hitchens and Dawkins was never evident in the Soviet Union. His “godless” atheist state was actually a form of religious statism, where the government and the Communist Party took the place of God in the public’s pantheon. As soon as the Party lost power, the people packed the new churches, most of them going back to the Russian Orthodox and Catholic churches they’d secretly supported for decades.

In this interview, he says that in the Ukrainian orphanage system, “children are treated as having no value… They are the discarded of society, subject to abuse and suffering.” How is this any different from the foster system in the United States, where as much as 80% of the population are religious?

Taunton also states that this devaluation of human life is “the result of decades of an anti-Christian, godless mindset, where human beings are seen as less valuable than the state.” How is any of this related to the philosophy of modern, humanistic atheism, which has among its most cherished principles, the importance of human rights? When have Dawkins and Hitchens ever promoted a view of the state as more valuable than humanity?

That would be never.

Sure, Hitchens was a Marxist once, but as he got older he renounced that view. Even when he supported Marxism, he didn’t support the Soviet model, with its authoritarian rule and unwavering devotion to the state.

Taunton has urged his fellow Christians to pray for Chris Hitchens. I urge my fellow atheists to think for Larry Taunton, because he shows no inclination toward thinking for himself.