Happy Halloween

  Hi folks.  Just wanted to share a little story from my home town area that will you in the festive spirit for the holiday that is Halloween.

  During my nomadic youth I spent some years living just up the road from this house;

And prior to that I spent some time living about 2 miles below it.  I know the area pretty well. This house sets in an area called Rehmeyer's Hollow.  Down the road a bit is a small ridge line that separates it from Blymire's Hollow.  My great-great-grandfather had a farm down from this and my grandfather was about 30 when the "incident" took place that makes this house famous. My great-great grandfather fought in the militia when Lee showed up make noise in Gettysburg.

  Something about this area that is not well known is the prevalence of witches.  They are much fewer now and like to be called "pow wow" doctors. Here is an article for background.
http://braucher.webs.com/

  Most of the old folk know all about it and my grand parents knew a home remedy or 2 that kept me healthy. I remember whenever I would step on a board and have a rusty nail punch through my bare feet what to do.  All you had to do was find the nail, pull it out of the board, cover it in hog lard, and place it somewhere that the sunlight would never reach it. And presto, no infection.

  A conspiracy of doctors have tried to discredit these techniques to drive down the competition, so this secret is not well known. Same as the way VHS took out Beta.

  Anyhow, in the early 1900's this house was the home of a guy named Nelson Rehmeyer. He did not get along with his neighbors, the Blymires, who lived at the other end of the woods. Seems old Nelson took to casting hex spells at his neighbors and all sorts of bad things befell them. People still put these signs on their barns to prevent bad luck from happening in this area.

  Well the Blymire clan was not having much luck, so they did the obvious- they went to see the River Witch of Marietta.  She would counter the spells being sent there way, after all she was a pretty high level NPC.  She could not do this unless the Blymire could produce a lock of the hair of Nelson Rehmeyer.

   So one night they went to ask him for it. I have had some awkward conversations, but going to your spooky warlock neighbor at night to ask him if you and your friends might offer to trim up his hair has got to be the topper. I guess when all else fails, violence usually works and they ended up killing the old spell caster. Then they burned him. Or else the other way around, not sure about this.

   They got in trouble for this, because apparently our country has slid so far toward totalitarianism that you are no longer allowed to burn witches.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehmeyer's_Hollow

 That article just gives what they want you to believe. Let me fill in some details from listening to my grandfather and from living around the area.

  I am not saying my grandfather was one of these pow wow people, but he had some interesting knowledge. He taught me how to tie a fishing knot, and how to get a spirit to lead you to buried money;  how to deal with a large mouth bass that leaps in the air to throw the hook, and ways to avoid the demonic familiar who could be guarding said treasure.  (To my shame, there was only one time I was ever alone in a room with a ghost, and profit was the LAST thing on my mind.)

 He told me when he was younger all the lands around there were prosperous farms. Now they are covered in new growth forest and brush. Hidden under all that growth are the remains of about 10 farms that died as a result of the magical curses leveled by the Warlock Rehmeyer.  No one lived in them and the county bought up all the land because they were abandoned. They turned the place in to a park for bike riders and hikers.  And they renamed it "Spring Valley Park."  Ha!  What a laugh.  I could take Mordor and rename it something cheerful and a bunch of yuppies would show up with their mountain bikes.
  
  Now days if my neighbor's Yorkie poops in my mulch I am upset. Imagine having this guy as a neighbor. This is straight up Magic the Gathering for REAL ante. If you lose you get some hideous sores oozing puss or something.

   So the house sets there, all alone in a patch of nothing. It has no trespassing signs up, which seem a bit much. Who needs to be told to stay away? Here is a pic of the hole in the floor and you can see the burn marks on the joist from the body. They say there are still blood stains too.

       One of the descendants owns the house and has tried to open it as a museum. He swears Nelson was not a witch, but one of the museum exhibits is supposed to be HIS SPELL BOOK.

  I am not Perry Mason, but either old Nelson had a real eclectic reading selection in the out house, or he was up to something. And just having a book with instructions for Satanic rituals to punish your enemies does not mean you are actually using it.

  But there is that last bit of evidence that is hard to refute.

  If your neighbors come to your house on a cold winter night and KILL you for WITCHCRAFT, you might be a witch.

  Just saying.

  So that is a ghost story from this crazy part of the world.

  Have a Happy Halloween.

Vote For ME!!!

  I need to ask a favor of everyone. And I got in to this really late so if you could spread the word it would be a HUGE help.

https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com/#


This web site is handing out grants to US based small business owners. It is Chase Bank doing it, not the government.  I entered my info and would love to have the money for a couple of things;

1. Hire someone!
2. Buy a larger plastic machine.
3. Get a better CNC machine
4. Insulate the stupid shop so I do not freeze all winter.


  Please if you could go the link and click vote. Then enter Proxie Models and vote. You have to have a Facebook account to vote, I think to prevent me from voting for myself a million times. Please spread the word to every forum you can find. This is a chance for me to finally build a team and buy a  larger plastic injection machine. And maybe a decent CNC machine.  Mine has an attitude, as you can see by the picture of its warning label.

 

 

 Yes, that is how it has treated me since day one!  Finally I can replace its gremlins infested evil with something worthwhile.
  I found out about this a little late so I missed out on 24 days of voting. I hope I can make a comeback.

  I am going to post on a couple forums like Dakka, but if anyone visits any other forums please hook me up with a topic and a link.

 The real chance here is small but worth a click. I figure they are all going to go to the next person planning a social media network.

  But maybe, out of the 12 grants, they might consider a crazy person making plastic bits in a barn.

The Rules Lawyer

  I played a game of Warhammer some time ago against this fellow. He deployed his dwarven canon in a river, that was impassable terrain. The rules at that time did not allow movement in to the terrain but there was no explicit prohibition against deploying there.

   I tried to reason with him by pointing out the obvious; metal canons are not buoyant, dwarves treading water would have difficulties loading the canon,  wet gun powder is less flammable, etc. Nothing worked.  I lost the game but stopped playing Warhammer with the guy. Just not compatible.

   Some of you may be aware of certain forums where Proxie is being talked about.  I was on the Miniatures Page Forum in a specific forum called- The Industry, way down on page 2 of a thread filled with people complaining about Defiance games and I thought I would warn my fellow hobby/workers about my dealings with them.  It got pasted to a couple of other forums and people have been beating Defiance up about it.

   It was meant for people in the industry and not meant to harm them with customers. Since then I went back to the other forums to clarify. Defiance has also made some comments that were at best self destructive. More like really suicidal.

  This is all water under the bridge. I need to move on. I found the money to pay my property taxes so I still have a house to live in. There is no point crying over spilt milk, as the saying goes. Right now they need every dollar to make up the new kick starter models. If they pay back debts it might hurt them going forward.  Just be aware if you are a supplier to them that if you get defined as the "past" you are not part of the "future". 

  I will work with them again if we can get a simple legal document etched in stone by the finger of a Divine Being. It needs to be signed in blood of course, on the summer solstice in an Indian burial ground. A coven of naked Wiccans chanting around us in a circle is customary as well. And everyone knows that without the Papal seal no contract is binding.

  Just kidding.  :)     You have to not take life too seriously sometimes.

  Seriously, time to drop this and move on.

  BUT,  thanks to all the support from people on the forums. I did not know I had so many friends out there. You guys went after them like a bunch of saber toothed piranha.  I hope I never piss off the gaming community.

Psalms 101

 Hello again.

  Things are progressing a little bit. My crew of ace designers has been busy making some stuff and I have been trying to make some molds. I am redesigning the female troopers for one piece models. There are another set of multi pose infantry in the works. Another fellow is working on a piece for use with a board game and the long awaited tank is somewhere on the horizon.

   The first thing finished is this road block set.

The sprues are here;

  I am currently trying to figure out kick starter. It seems to be the preferred method of buying for most consumers. Kind of baffles me a bit. In fact makes no damn sense at all. Why would I pay money now for something I might get a year from now?  However, looking at the huge sums of money being lobbed at anything with the word kick starter in front of it there is a good chance I may change with the times and do one.

  There are a few other changes in the works.  I have to be a lot more aware of the sort of people I am dealing with. Hence the title of this post-which gives instructions on how to avoid crooks.

  As of today, I am announcing that I will NEVER have any dealings with Defiance Games in any way shape or form. Simply put, the reputation they have on the internet is well deserved. And the "new" management team can go straight to hell.

  The new management team refuses to pay for products ordered under the old management team. I have shipped 3 large orders to them, costing me hundreds in shipping alone, and not gotten one single penny. The first few months were filled with excuses, but now I have been told to go pound sand.

  Be very wary of these folks. I am learning all about running a business and this is a very important lesson.

   Ok guys, have a good week and I will keep you posted on new events.