OK, there are a few things.  First, last week was pretty good.  I made it out to a couple comedy shows that were outright fantastic!  Anna Akana is touring her show, It Gets Darker, which was particularly enjoyable for me.  As you know, my existence hasn’t exactly been “fun” as it were.  So, I relate very well to much of her material.  Take the time to see her show!  It’s a good choice and you owe it to yourself.  Then I saw Chris Hardwick.  Another solid performance.  Sharing his experience being married and a new father.  With a handful of musical numbers the show is tight and entertaining from start to finish.  I’ve really missed going out to shows, it’s been too long and this last week was inspiring and motivating for me to get off my ass and seriously get back into things.  Starting with this post.  I sat down and outlined the projects I’m working on.  I’m going to start having some fun with these again.

     Redstone Diaries is going to start up again this week.  Yeah, it’s pretty much just going to be me babbling into the void until I straighten out the player situation and we get back into the game.  I’m writing a new podcast, I have a bunch of unopened Loot Crates I’m going to flaunt in videos that will be up on Twitch, or Youtube, or whatever, I don’t know yet.  I’m still working out our live-streaming stuff.  We’ll get there.  One thing I’m really excited about, I’ve just about perfected my technique and processes with my resin work.  I can make a full set of dice in about a day now and that includes dice for the new Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game.  Which is also a game we’ll be playing for the podcast.  I’ll be posting photos of the resin pieces I’ve made so far on here when I work out the best way to go about that.  In the meantime, you can find those photos on my instagram, I think you can find it either under Tim Flood or Scruffy.  And I’m always taking commissions.  There are plenty of color options for dice and I’m learning how to sculpt so I can do more by way of custom pieces.  Just send your commissions to me at timflood@comedyshedradio.com and we’ll see what I can do.  

     That’s all I have for now.  I need a nap, and then that pesky day job, after that I’ll be recording a podcast and then starting on dice.  I have a new art piece I’ve been planning for a friend’s restaurant.  I can’t wait until I finish it, I’m trying something new with this one and I’m excited to see how it turns out.  Until next time.

So, I’ve been working with resin for a little while now. It’s a medium that is far more fun than it should be. I’m developing some interesting techniques and getting fantastic results. Right now I’m calling them Tim Pyramids, there’s something phonetic in that but I don’t know what it’s called. The important thing is that they’re pretty cool.

I’m using primarily epoxy resin and a little bit the UV resin for some applications. I’m also incorporating PLA plastic to make images that will be filled with resin to create a somewhat stained glass look. I’ve tried that a couple times and it turned out well. I just need to work with it more to build on the technique. And then when I figure out how to competently sculpt clay figures, I’ll be mass producing minis of our characters from our podcast Redstone Diaries. Which will come back as soon as I get some players again. In the meantime, I’m going to start building models on our Twitch channel. I don’t remember that info right now, you’ll hear about it.

Back to arts and crafts. I don’t have any finished pieces for sale right now but I am always taking commissions. Prices and timeframe for completion and shipping will be estimated in response to any interested requests. Feel free to start that conversation through the contact page here on the website or e-mail me directly at timflood@comedyshedradio.com. To start, I do Tim Pyramids in two sizes; small and large. Large pyramids do take considerably longer to make since I have just the one mold right now. I have a dozen colors of glow-in-the-dark pigments, around a dozen or so thermochromatic pigments, a few sparkly mica powders, and the liquid dyes to mix pretty much any color in opaque pigments. That said, I’m open to any suggestions you may have.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please give me something to do, I can feel my own thoughts creeping back in…

Finally!  It’s FanX again!  It feels good spending time around the Salt Palace again.  I missed the smell of churros in the air, the cartoon characters running around, and of course the panels of creative professionals sharing their experience and inspiring at least me.

     In particular, I met a professional Dungeon Master, Dax Levine.  You should check it his services and dice available through his website, dungeonmasterdirect.com.  Surely by now you’ve accidentally found the work of Amy Chu but you should be making a more concerted effort to read and watch anything or everything she has written for.  You should also take a look at geekknights.com.  They’re a production team based here in utah.  They play Dungeons & Dragons and then produce videos based on their games.  And at 5 o’clock PM/MDT on Saturday September 23 they’re premiering the trailer for their upcoming streaming series.  Talking with a members of their group earlier, they seem OK.  They’re looking support going forward especially money.  Go to their website and there’s a number of ways to contribute.

     I also started a new game.  I made a small decorative pyramid with resin.  The idea is to move it from place to place and see where it goes.  I poorly wrote on its base #whereisitpyramid.  My first post about it includes the rules.  I placed it in a window of the Salt Palace to kick off this little game.  Find it and let’s see where it goes.

     I’m heading into day two as I write this.  More interesting panels, I noticed some D&D and Magic: the Gathering games on the schedule, and plenty more.  I always tell everyone that they should go, there’re plenty of activities and something for quite literally everybody.  Have fun and EXCELSIOR!

Spoiler warning: So many Vespas.  Those poor, defenseless Vespas!

     Well, this is the seventh movie in the film series starring Tom Cruise.  I’ve always been a fan of spy stories.  Dating back to the days of Get Smart.  I mean, yeah, there’ve been better shows and films but Get Smart was a lot of fun, god damn it.  Back to Mission Impossible.  I watched the first three movies in the theater, or cinema if you prefer.  Ghost Protocol released at a time when I couldn’t make it out to a theater but Rogue Nation going forward, I’m there.  I don’t just love these films as a fan of espionage stories, they’re fun and well made movies.  A running gag with these movies is the ‘big stunt’ topping the ‘big stunt’ from the previous film.  Yeah, it’s true but that’s just the natural progression of advancement and existence.  That said, this one is pretty fuckin’ sweet!  And while the big stunt always seems to serve as a break from the often heady plot and story of the few or, one, who has the integrity and moral fortitude to do the things no one else can or will, as well as the constitution to be thought a villain for doing what is in fact right…oh yeah, the big stunt doesn’t detract from the storytelling.

     The story in this one is more poignant and contemporary than the previous films.  While those stories dealt more with the security and implementation of intelligence agencies versus other intelligence agencies or rogue elements threatening the assumed way of life for a population, this movie touches on things that had become considerably less “science fiction” since the time this production started.  Playing on the growing ominous climate surrounding the mundane use of artificial intelligence and following through to logical conclusion of that technology this movie shows us a fairly realistic sequence of events based on what we’ve seen of our own human behavior and the logical interpretation of that behavior as it’s observed by an intellect based solely on reason.  It’s too bad humans are dumb as shit and refuse to recognize that they’re not superior to any-damn-thing.  Especially when they make something that, by definition, is smarter than they.  While this doesn’t do much to help my ‘growing fear of robots’(See my stand-up for that bit.) it is a fun movie and I’ve done far worst things to kill a couple hours.

     One of the really interesting components of this story is the recurring topic of how these characters joined the IMF, the why and when they were given ‘the choice’ and then chose to accept.  Throughout the movie there is a distinct sensation that Ethan Hunt is coming to the end of his career with the IMF.  I know, they’ve hinted at that with the end of each movie since MI:III but it never really felt all that much as if the character would cease his espionagey activities but rather it just wasn’t certain that there would another movie.  This one, however, felt specifically different from that.  Revealing aspects of Ethan’s past and juxtaposing that with Grace(Hayley Atwell) in her predicament seemed very much baton passey.  All said, just go watch it.  You know you want to.  What’s it gonna hurt, ya big baby?!

The other day I had the opportunity to watch an advance screening of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. Reviews are embargoed until the fifth so, that’s when I’ll post mine. Suffice to say, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I recommend you go watch it first chance you get. And cut out that bullshit of “I’m waiting until it’s all done so I can watch it all at once.” You sound like an idiot and to quote to Abe Simpson: If I don’t support this thing it might not catch on.