New Job 2016

**Update 3/31/16

Hi all! I start my new job today at Global. This should be fun :) I'm in training all day and can't wait to come home and set up my hobby room. I'm finally getting over my cold and feel well enough to tackle this mess.

**UPDATE** A few days into my brand new hybrid job and I've been working late each night. I'm trying to strike a balance between my old job and my new job. I'm essentially working for two teams right now and trying to manage new expectations on both sides. It's been a real challenge but I'm passionate about supporting both teams!

I finally had some time after dinner to work on "my space" and, as you can see, I emptied several moving boxes and organized things to make for two nice "Before & After" pictures:

Before

After

It feels really nice to sit here with a glass of Malbec in hand and think of how I want to arrange this room. I'll definitely need a magazine rack for my painting/design mags. I've never had this much space to myself and I'll definitely need some additional shelving! I get a healthy amount of natural light through the big windows and it'll make for enjoyable painting on the weekends. I can't wait until I get some time to paint! It's been weeks since I've had personal time to spend doing what I love. In fact, it's making me a bit crazy having not painted in weeks.

I sent off my harpies and they should be arriving any day now. I hope the shopping box of doom turned out okay. They were super delicate and I was so paranoid that they'd be damaged en route: 

 https://twitter.com/mocha_minis/status/713392490603286530 

In any case, it's about time I started on a new commission. I think this will fit the bill! It's been awhile since I've painted a badass female warrior. I can't wait!  

The best news is, after three weeks of waiting, we'll finally have internet! I can't tell you how frustrating it is to not be able to come home and get on the Internet. Free wifi cafes are barely reliable and with how little free time I have, it's been a real struggle. Hopefully this is the last blog post I have to write using my phone keypad! We should be back to the new normal by Monday. Thank goodness! Until then :) 

SXSW Gaming Recap

Hi all! It's Wednesday and my fever's finally gone. It's been a rough 72 hours but I'm bouncing back! We still don't have Internet at the new place and I wanted to choke the technician who told me it may be another two weeks before we get wifi. How frustrating! I'm writing this post on my cell phone like a really, really long text message-- but with more pictures. It's alright though, I'm curled up on the couch with my tea trying to breathe through my stuffy nose and sore throat. Ugh con crud. Yuck!

From which convention did I catch the crud, you ask? Why South by Southwest of course! SXSW is a huge festival in Austin that has recently expanded to host a gaming branch in the Austin Convention Center. I saw many of the same big names from PAX South like Alienware, DX Racer, Twitch, and Logitech. I was also happy to see lots of local game shops represented like Emerald Tavern Games & Cafe. They had an entire section devoted to indie games as well which was pretty cool. I was helping run the Reaper Paint & Take event and it was crazy busy!

Oh, right, before I get into that I should probably explain what the event is. At various conventions, Reaper sets up a portable shop (which is actually much bigger than you'd think!) and hosts a Paint & Take event, where convention attendees can pick a mini from around 8 pre-selected styles of Bones miniatures and sit and paint for free! Reaper provides various colors of paint at the table and we provide them with paper towels, parchment paper to use as a palette, and a brush. It's a great way to introduce people to tabletop miniatures and the joy of painting them. For most people, it's their very first time painting a miniature!

While each participant usually stay about an hour, for some reason this con was more of a whirlwind than PAX. While I only have that one other con to compare it to, I noticed that SXSW had a LOT of little kids. And little kids have fairly short attention spans and only sit and paint for 15-20 minutes, which meant we were constantly turning over and cleaning up stations for newcomers (you wouldn't believe the crazy messes they'd leave!). I was pretty shocked at how many 3-8 year olds we were getting, some so young that they couldn't even hold a brush (he sat in mom's lap while mom held the mini and painted holding his hand on the brush-- too cute!) Then it dawned on me: it's Spring Break! All the kids are out of school and this was a family-friendly event that's only open 3 days. For parents looking to do something unique with their kids (since they probably already did the zoo and aquarium earlier that week), this was the perfect outing. My favorite part was the small pod of children gathered around the Minecraft booth with their eyes wide staring transfixed by the video screen. Adorable!

The convention hall was open 12-8pm and we worked every bit of that time. We did take turns inhaling food in the back of the booth before jumping back into the fray. Even with only one person down, it was a struggle to manage the people who were just arriving in line as well as clean up and prep the tables for people who were leaving and quickly seat the next people in line. The larger the party, the more difficult it is to seat them all together when every seat is taken and you're not sure how long it'll be until a large section opens up. Luckily, the Reaper team works well together and keeps moving like a machine! 

So working cons isn't especially glamorous but it's personally rewarding to introduce so many people into our tiny world. And it's always a pleasure working with the Reaper team! Alright, I need to get to bed so I can kick this crud and get better already (plus my phone is dying and I need to go plug it in). I may edit & add more to this tomorrow, but I wanted to get something up Wednesday like I promised! :) More to come later!

Con Crud 2016

My first con crud of the new year. Been out sick this week and will post Wednesday. Sorry for the delay! Going to take some Sudafed and make some hot tea now.