Firefly Podcast, a new Tabletop RPG

Hey folks,

Long time no post, right? Doesn't matter. My creative energy hasn't stopped since before this blog started, but my time constraints have been insane.

All that aside, I've got a new podcast. Me and a bunch of nerdy ass friends of mine play the Firefly Role Playing Game. WTF is that? It's like dungeons and dragons, except with planets and spaceships and political turmoil and all kinds of other cool shit.

Basically, if you are a Browncoat, or a general Joss Whedon fan, or just like improv good or bad, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/firefly-podcast-balls-bayonets/id966096665 and subscribe. On android? Search Firefly Podcast in stitcher, or whatever podcatcher app you're using, and look for our logo above. Need the RSS direct link? www.fireflypodcast.libsyn.com/rss BAM taken care of.



I'm still playing bass for The Long Black Veils and we released our second album, In The Dark, which you can buy On iTunes Here.

Oh, yeah, and my wife had twins. Olivia Mae and Samuel Joe will be 1 year old on 5/13/15. We are done having kids now. For sure. Twins are INSANE to have! I feel so much sympathy for people with multiples now! But yeah, they are awesome, and I wouldn't trade the sleepless nights for anything. Sammy is a brickhouse eating machine with an attitude just like his daddy and Olivia cracks me up almost every time I'm with her. #dadlife yo.

Anyways, check out the podcast, check out the album, if you friend me on facebook or follow me on twitter you'll see what I'm up to. I'm on twitter way more than anything else though.

Peace out!

Goddamn ye, merry gentlemen

I've posted this on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and now here. It is April 14'th, a day that I always save for someone whose body of work affected me deeply.

3 Years ago today, we lost one of the greatest minds in music. A hero to me and many others. An inspired bassist, prolific writer, and amazing vocalist. As I do every year, today my thanks to Peter will be made by spreading his music so others can be as inspired as I have been.

This is the full "World Coming Down" album in a playlist on youtube.
This album, to me, proved that Peter and Type O Negative were more than human. Each album was as strong, in some points stronger, than the previous. That's saying a lot since the previous album to this was "October Rust", a legendary disc itself.

The biggest thing I take from this album is the feeling behind it. Peter had said that this album was too personal for him and he didn't like playing it live. See that? He put so much of his pain and heart into this album it made him uncomfortable! I wish I could do that. I wish I had that pure of a conduit for my pain, to put so much of it into something that it gave me the shivers.

My favorite tracks are "Creepy Green Light" and "Everything Dies". 

  Rest In Peace, A hero to us: Peter Thomas Ratajczyk [Peter Steele] (January 4, 1962 – April 14, 2010). Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL61069BFB8B753370

SUPER HAPPY FUN TIME GEEK PODCAST!!!

Hey folks!

Long time, no see! That's because I've been so busy with my band, The Long Black Veils! We put out our Debut CD, we have t-shirts and everything!

But what's been taking my time lately aside from the band, family, and work, is a music focused Podcast! That's right, yours truly is on iTunes and any other podcatching software you want via TRSpod.com! I am a bassist, and I do the podcast with my drummer Johnny, so the podcast is called "The Rhythm Section with Johnny and Rob".

It's a podcast by a rhythm section, for everyone, but mostly for rhythm players. Just give it a listen, and if you like it, rate it on iTunes with a comment, email us at therhythmsectionpod@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or leave a comment here!

Also, I'm totally addicted to Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, no expansions, straight vanilla. If you dig on it, hit me up on Steam and we'll noobtube some faces together!

Peace out homies!



p.s., here's a video of the sexiest woman on TV, Allison Scagliotti, with the most hilarious down syndrome actor of all time The Ponceman.

Flayed out like a nice honey ham

 Hi folks!

I'm going to paste here a post I just made over on the TAPS forum I help moderate. I'm exclusively in charge of the "Religion" section, since its such a taboo topic it's treated in the same way as politics, with a careful hand and strict moderation. I volunteered to open that topic on the forum, because it's been a banned topic for years, but I felt that wasn't right, and I was the only one wanting or willing to take on the job. We also have a politics and a debate section, I stay the hell away from those because I can't treat them with the objectivity or education that I can religion. I don't care for opinions on how people moderate forums, each one is different, so don't bother commenting with that stuff.

Anyways, if you know, or if you don't, I'm a Christian. The topic I was posting in was "How did you choose your religion?". Here's my answer, and my story.


"I suppose I should answer this question as well. This might (edit: WILL be) a long read. Don't worry, I put a "too long, didn't read" at the end.

I was raised in an Evangelical Free church. Never really did figure out why it was called that, considering the church didn't do much "evangelizing" and certainly held a social structure not unlike a high-school "clique" structure. After being a Christian for my upbringing, I came to a point in my life that I had unanswered questions, and that's when everything got weird for me.

I couldn't find answers to simple questions about why the world was in the state that it was, war famine death etc, but what it all really boiled down to for me was one stream of thought: "IF God is omniscient, he knows all past present and future, then he knew what would happen by creating Lucifer. He knew about the Holocaust. He knew about the Turkish genocide against the Armenians. He knew everything down to the girl crying in her room, hiding from her abusive father. IF God knew these things in advance, what kind of monster must he be to go through with creating Lucifer?"

I struggled with that thought for years. I only had two conclusions. A: There is no God B: God exists, and is a monster. Since I personally had experience with the paranormal, I couldn't fathom A being possible, so I could only assume B was the answer. It's like a switch was flipped in my head, from Love and belief, to absolute hatred and just as much belief. I never was one to say "God isn't real". I was the one who said, "God is all too real, and HE is the reason for your pain, suffering, and despair". That's a pretty powerful feeling when its at the core of your being. When you believe that so strongly, so purely, that you absolutely hate and despise God for his arrogance and narcissism, it becomes a mission to give the biggest middle finger you possibly can to this God you believe in but despise.

In my life, I have converted exactly ZERO people to Christianity. I have converted a few to Satanism, not "worship the devil" satanism, but actual humanistic LaVey'an satanism. I've converted dozens to witchcraft. From Gardenarian to eclectic to coven-based Dianic witchcraft. I've had experiences, I've seen things people talk about here on the forums, I know its real and I know its powerful. Problem is, I'm a Christian now, and that's not easy for me.

How I chose my religion is probably a little different than most. I chose my religion through personal experience with both sides of the coin. When it finally came down to "conversion day" as I jokingly call it, it was the voice of God or something akin that gave me my choice.

I was at a church mountain retreat, partially because, hey its a mountain retreat and that's awesome. But not because I wanted to be there for spiritual reasons, mostly because a longtime friend invited me, and I figured it would be a great time to spin these Christians heads with the knowledge that I had, to go on the offensive and watch the crestfallen looks in their faces as they realized that they also couldn't answer my question. That they, firm in their belief, could not give me any justification for the atrocities their God had caused simply by the act of creation. I looked in the mirror, and I saw my purpose. It wasn't until later that I realized that I wasn't the first half of the Saul story, I WAS the Saul story.

I spent time with the people at the camp, it was fun because I love being in the mountains since I was raised camping and fishing. I did the activities, I sang the songs - badly, I even prayed, though I wasn't praying to God as much as I was chastising him. My friend, the one who invited me to the retreat, asked me if I would go pray with him and his youth pastor friend. It wasn't a long, drawn out thing like this post has turned into. It was as simple as the guy praying "Lord, our brother here is in need. He needs you to show him why, and he needs you to fill the void he has filled with anger and hate" or something similar, its been a few years, forgive my memory.

I sat there, awkwardly, politely silent, and waited for someone to say "well, lets get back to the activities" or something. That didn't happen. What did happen was something that I will never forget, and it put the faith in me that everything happens for a reason. I heard a voice, not just in my head, but audibly, as though someone had set up a PA in the room and tuned everything to sub-bass frequencies. Not trying to be dramatic here, that's what it felt like, and I'm a bassist, I know what that feels like. It wasn't a speech, it wasn't a profound saying, or a quote from the Bible. It was one word, it actually was word.

 I heard, in my head and my ears, a vibration that could only be described as unearthly, it was a voice and it said "Word". This isn't significant to most, but at the time there was a movement in the area for duct taping, bejeweling, painting, and otherwise adorning your Bible with what makes it important to you. I looked down, and behind the youth pastor guy there was a bible, covered in duct tape, and in permanent marker was written very boldly "WORD". Aside from the "holy sh-- whats happening here" feeling, I got a flash of clarity in my head. For a split second I completely understood how predestination and free will worked together. How there was a reason for the things that happened. How no sacrifice was without purpose, and how no suffering or death was more important than the endgame.

I don't know why, but God chose to give me clarity for just long enough to convince me, beyond any human doubt, that not only was He the God that I believed in, but that the reason that I hated him was because I didn't understand, and never could. I still struggle, I'm not a good Christian, but I will never question God again.

TL,DR: It took a literal act of God to bring me back to Christianity, and that's what happened.

So, what's your story?"

And that is it my friends. Heart firmly stapled to my sleeve, that's the birth of my faith as it is. Comments, thoughts, fiery criticism, and anything else you have to say is welcome in the comments. You can follow me on Twitter @Zombieslag and check out my band (I'm just the bassist) @theLBV.

Seeya next time!

Debut Album Super Happy Good Times!

Hey folks!

So if you've read this blog for a while, you know I'm in a band. If you don't, hey, I'm in a band. Anyway, our long awaited and hard work filled debut album is out now! Available on HERE ON AMAZON and soon to be available on iTunes and everywhere else.

Buy It Please! Enjoy It Too!

You say I'm shamelessly self-promoting? Well, Duh! We've been working our asses off on this for a while now and I'm proud of it! We self produced the entire album except for having it mastered at a local studio, and we learned a lot in the process.

Everyone who buys the album is helping to fund us as we are still coming up with the cash to press the first limited run of 100 physical CD's. We are already hard at work on the second album, and have at least 2 more in the works to boot!! This is our passion, each of us has a part of us in this album. There was a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and alcohol to make this album, and every single one of those is literal!

That's it for now, been so busy with the band I haven't had time to finish any papercraft! Its been a very hectic few months for this little geek. Share the link around and enjoy people!

Get off the LagWagon!

Hey Folks!

I've been having trouble lately, and its with my PC. Games that I have been playing for a long time with this rig are starting to lag. Most of the new games I get do the same. I've searched everywhere for a solution. From updating all of my drivers, to creating a new hardware profile strictly for gaming (can't even print in that profile.).

Well I never found one. I'm buying a GTX 650 after the new year. But for now I found a bandaid. Instead of dropping to unplayable fps levels, I can now run everything at a minimum of 20+fps. Yeah, I know, not stellar, but playable. Here's how:

So thanks for reading, thanks for watching, and have a great day!

Man Day!

Hey folks!

This is a "listen up" type post, so click the button!

Contribution to society

Hey Folks!

I'll be posting here VERY soon so keep an eye out, in the meantime I'm resuming contribution duties for a friends Gaming Blog. Check it out! http://bit.ly/Si9ANN

HOLYCRAPITSANUPDATEREADITNOW!!!!

Hey Folks!

So apparently this is turning into a once a month blog lol. JUST KIDDING! I've been so busy with my band The Long Black Veils playing all over Fresno, Ca that I haven't had time to post!

Here's a little update on whats going on:
Found out I had a twitter account since November of 09, follow @zombie_slag if you like.
Bought a new bow, re modified and started practicing the Bassolin again
Got a whole crapload of new games on Steam thanks to my brother and the folks at Humble Bundle

Well that's it for now, gunna go play outside with the kids. Yeah, that's right, out where the sun is, here's hoping I don't melt. Stay tuned very soon (like this weekend) for a full update and some cool pics\vids!

Get a look at them Gams!

Hey folks!

Had a little free time while the wife watched some chick show and the littlest one was sleeping, so here's a progress report on The Evil Dead papercraft extravaganza I'm working on!

If you read the blog you know Ash already has his head, chainsaw, boom-stick, and auto-mail hand. If this is your first read of my blog, SHAME ON YOU!, but here's a pic of what I had done previously:

This should be old news for you!

I only had a few minutes to work with so I started on the legs. The legs are designed weirdly, which seems to be a theme with this model. Instead of being one piece, its two. One for the bulk of the legs, then another sort of like a cap. Very odd design to me.

Anyways, I'm going to be getting busy on this model set because I have a few much more complicated models I'm eager to get to so this project needs to get finished already! Without further ado, here's a few pics:

Uncut

Main piece

Cut and folded

Glued

So there you have it! Hopefully by next week I'll have Ash completely done and maybe even Cheryl done and Linda started! That's right, the whole set is getting done! I'm also interested in doing an Evil Ash or maybe some Deadites if there are models out there, but that's for the future.

Hope to see you next time!

@Rock and Roll #Selfpromote

Hey Folks!

So, In case you don't know yet, I'm in a band called The Long Black Veils. We sound like ourselves and look like ourselves, but if we are forced to give a genre, its Rock-countrybluesfolkindieamericana-And Roll. If you feel inclined, I'll put the list of links that you can find us at from Twitter to a Mobile app for your phone, and you can follow\reach\stalk us that way.

My point in bringing this up, aside from the blatant self promotion (check our facebook for show schedule), is that we've been having an issue in our area with promotion. Not our promotion, as you can see we've got that well in hand between all the links and videos. The problem is with club promoters.

I'm gunna be blunt here, I love the clubs we play in, but some of them don't promote, period. If you are from my area and you're a musician, you already know which ones are great and which ones aren't when it comes to getting word out that you're playing a show on a particular night. I really wouldn't have beef with this, since I play for drinks and food and the sheer thrill of being onstage and playing music that I love, but when a club owner\promoter\organizer walks up to you after the show and says "where was everybody? This place was at 1/3 capacity it should have been full" and they are somehow blaming THE BANDS for this? Well that just pisses me off.

Instead of going on a rant, I'm going to link to an article that's been floating out there for a few months, and puts this issue in better words than I possibly could. Read it and think about it for your area, because it's not just California that has this problem I'm sure.

Here's the article: http://www.scribd.com/doc/78468650/La-Club-Owners

And here's the links to The Long Black Veils I mentioned earlier:
Facebook
ReverbNation
Twitter
Mobile App
Youtube
Myspace (yeah it still exists haha)
So that's all I got for today, gotta get to work on my slow smoked chicken breast BBQ omnomnom. Hope to see you all again soon!

It Begins!

Hey folks! So I put a little time in today on the papercraft, got some progress made.

This is going to be a multi-part set, but I'm really excited about the first piece! I've only got a couple of pics for you today, as my droid is recharging, but the best part is that I finished about half of the Ash model!

I like to do the hardest parts first, while I'm fresh and my hands feel good, so that's what I did, so here's the pics

 

 

Mah Boomstick!

 The Boomstick was a really interesting piece, I've never seen a model that used rolled pieces along with folded pieces, rolling, folding, and gluing them all together. It was a little bit of a trick to get it right, but you'll see in future posts how I got it done.

Ash, Boomstick, Autohand, Chainsaw

There's the boomstick in its finished form, a very simple but oddly and interestingly designed piece. Of course Ash's head looks funny at that angle, but its pretty cool. The autohand was very simple and easy to build. The chainsaw was simple, but I left a piece off because it looked funny, and who needs a safety guard on a chainsaw that's mounted to their wrist?

Anyhoo, I've got tons of pics, a vid or two, once I'm done (same style as my Vivi and Boo vids), and plenty more "what I learned doing this model" moments. I think I've learned something new with every model I've done since the very first one!

Hope to see you back soon!

I'll Swallow Your Soul!!!

Hey folks!

Today marks my triumphant return to papercraft and this blog!

My printer has been dead for quite some time, and I've been pretty busy with work and my band The Long Black Veils. Well I've got a new printer now and I'm just as busy with everything, but I gots ta do me some papercraftin!

The models I'm working on today are very simple, but very awesome, and since I'm out of cardstock (I use 110lb, the lighter of the cardstocks) I figured a simple yet cool model would be good for A4 (standard printer paper).

Anyways, I've just got it printed out and started cutting when the kid woke up so looks like I'll be posting the progress and pics later, but for now here's a teaser, Ash Uncut!

Testing, testing, oh ive got a lovely bunch of coconuts. That is all.

NO TIME FOR BACKUP!!!

Hey folks!

Gunna be a quick one this time, cause I got no time! So I got back from my latest trip: Bakersfield ca to Richmond va to Kingman az and back home. It was a time tight trip with too many things holding us up, but we made all of our drops on time and got home saturday morning! I slept from about 2pm saturday morning til 730am today, WHAT A WASTE!!! Going fishing and then its time to spend time with the family til i have to go back on the road tomorrow at 10am.

Time to go!

What The Clutch?!

Hey folks!

Well I've been home for a week now since my last trip, and I ain't going anywhere til Monday.

The last driver that had the truck I'm in apparently didn't take very good care of it. We couldn't get an oil change because the bolt was broken or something, and the clutch went out on us on the last 200 miles of our 6,000 mile trip. He also destroyed the cab pretty well, missing armrests, broken mirrors, sleeper cab A\C and fan don't work. Overall a stand up guy lol.

The mechanic at the yard was supposed to have it done last week, but I guess he got swamped with all the other trucks that needed work before ours, so he wont have it done til this afternoon, which puts us driving to pick up our loads and then sitting until Monday morning to get them. Considering that's pointless, we are just going to leave early Monday morning.

So here's some pics from the last trip, since I'm not on the next trip yet:

If I have time I'll post a few pics from my last fishing trip, which was waaaay too long ago! See you next time!
Rob

Made it back!

Hey Folks!

Well I made it back from my inaugural trip as an over the road Truck Driver! Here's the breakdown:

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Went I-40 East and I-10 west, making a big loop through all of the southern states (except Florida) and a little juke north into Maryland where our first destination was going.

So far the job has been stressful, but nothing I couldn't handle. I can already see that, aside from bad weather, this is something I can handle for a while til I can get something local. Should be going back out Thursday morning (June 2) for a similar run.

One thing I can say is this: Tennessee needs to burn its freeway system to the ground and start over, and give everyone in the state a 6 month class on how to drive like a human being. I swear, out of all 15 states, that had to have been the worst. Baltimore's freeway system is a construction zone, creeping through at 15 mph in one lane surrounded by chopsaws and honda civics, but I'd rather do that all day than the stretch from east of Memphis to the east end of Tennessee. Hell I'd rather run over Tehachapi back and forth for 10 hours than go through Tennessee lol.

Well, I'm home now, and its time to catch up on all the sleep and beer I've missed while I was gone. Spend time with the old lady and chitlins and relax for a few days. This blog is now turning into an "update when I'm home" format, since my phone isn't all that great for posting.

See you on the Freeway!
Rob

Keep On Trucking!!!!!

Hey folks!!
 
Well tomorrow starts a new day, a new job, and a new future as a full on Truck Driver! Going to be Over The Road with a buddy of mine driving reefer (refrigerated unit) hauling produce from our great state of California to God knows where! So I thought, in the spirit of new beginnings, I'd give you a little speech before my inaugural run. Here it is:

You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man convoy. But when my truck driving school brought Troy here, I knew he was one of my own. And my convoy... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the convoy... I was alone first in the convoy, and then Troy joined in later. And 3 days ago, when Troy introduced me to Brar Express, I thought, "Wait a second, could it be?" And now I know for sure, I just added a new employer to my convoy. Two of us truckers, running around the highways together, in the truck, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast! 

Now its time to eat hotwings, drink beer, watch Sons of Anarchy (season 3), and spend time with my old lady, cause that's what I want to do on my last day home for a while. I'll keep you updated, and with internet on my phone (w00000t!) I'll be able (hopefully) to post from the road.

PEACE OUT PEDESTRIANS!

SUCK IT!

AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!

Type O Negative - Dead Again

For those of you who don't know, Peter Steele, aka Petrus T. Ratajczyk (January 4, 1962 – April 14, 2010) passed away a year ago today. I will never forget the first time I listened to his band Type O Negative.

My brother bought October Rust and listened to it from start to finish. I then took it from his room, put the album on repeat, and didn't stop listening to it. I sat in my room for hours on end that day, reading books, writing, and just zoning out, with that album playing nonstop. I don't think I can really remember another day that music meant so much to me coming out of a stereo in my room.

Since then I've followed every release, and gone back to past releases, Bloody Kisses is an album no one should miss out on, but I'm glad October Rust was my introduction, as it will forever hold a place in my heart reserved for things like love, pain, ecstasy and despair. 



I was 13 then, and already had too much on my mind, but it all went away that day for those hours of peace. I miss Type O and Peter for the peace they brought to my mind whenever I listen to their music. I'm glad I have so many albums to rely on.


For those of you that know, you know. For those of you that don't yet know, it's time to find out. Seek out all the Type O Negative albums. Devour them. Experience them the way I did, in your own way, and give thanks and sit for mourning. This world has lost so many musical talents, but I think none so understated and under-appreciated as Peter Steele. May you rest in peace, thank you for your soul in my headphones.


Lay your head down for the last time.