Sunday, July 30, 2006

The United Nations

Is there a more useless organization in the world?

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Geeks of the world, unite!

I've built plastic models off and on since I was a little boy. It all started with a snap together helicopter when I was 7, along with some small glue together ships that my father brought home for me. B the time I was 8, Star Wars and such became more important, and I couldn't care less about models. When I was 11, we moved to North Carolina. I met a boy the same age who built model airplanes, and he did a really good job with them, and I wanted to build models like him. I built the occaisional airplane until my mid teens, when cars and girls became more important. I was a junior in college and a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation when my parents bought me a model of the USS Enterprise. I spent over six months building that kit, using a toothpick to paint several hundred individual windows.

I continued building the Star Trek series of models, along with an airplane here and there, through my early 20's. I then met my first wife, who felt that building models was no different than playing with toys. Again, I got out of the hobby, but kept all of my supplies (airbrush, paints, brushes, spare parts box, etc). My life with my first wife was fortunately short, and when she left I started building WW2 airplanes. I started dating my eventual current wife, and she thought that my ability to take a box of plastic pieces and build and paint it into a replica of the real thing was neat, and she supported my hobby.

I have become semi-serious about building my airplane models. I have well over 100 unbuilt model kits in my closet, and I have a goal of building one of each aircraft flown during the Second World War. I have thousands spent on books, kits, and supplies. I have a gas mask that I wear when airbrushing. I have run out of room in our small house to display, and already have plans on how I'm going to set up my new hobby room when we get our new house at the end of the year.

About two years ago, several model builders who frequented a local hobby shop decided to get together twice a month and form a hobby club. Building plastic models is a small niche hobby. The quality of kits and supplies now are better than ever, but less and less people are getting into the hobby. Think about it: Model building is competing against video games and the Internet. I see it in my stepson: He goes for the immediate gratification of blasting away at something on the computer than the enduring, self-satisfaction of patiently building a kit.

Yesterday I attended my first model convention. A convention is where model builders display their kits and compete for prizes while vendors display and sell their wares. I bought six kits at great rates, along with four more for my son. Looking around, you could see and smell the geek factor. Not many athletic, outdoorsy types there. Instead, there were a lot of fat, brainy geeks and really skinny, pasty-skinned geeks around, plus an above-average number of handicapped individuals (model building is a great hobby for those who are mobility impaired).

Why do I build? For me, it is the satisfaction of creating something with my own hands. I love all things dealing with WW2 aviation, and whenever you build a kit, you tend to read about your subject, and the researching you do is almost as much fun as the build. Because of my hobby, I would definitely have to say that I have an above average knowledge about World War 2, along with WW1, Korea, and Vietnam.

My five-year-old sees me build, and he wants to build. I don't hesitate to purchase easy kits for him, because I want him to learn to build, to research, to follow directions, and to do something other than play video games. Plus, he is the future of the hobby, and so far it looks like the hobby will be in good hands. Last night, he surprised me and the wife when we heard him messing around at the kitchen table for almost an hour, and when he came out he produced a snap together F-22 fighter that he had cut, sanded, and put together completely on his own!

Yes, I'm a geek. I even make airplane noises as I build and admire my models :-)

Monday, July 03, 2006

So, what are you going to prove?

I was listening to BBC World News on the radio this morning, and they did a story of some bitches here in the US who are going to protest the Iraq war by going on a hunger strike. Are you shitting me? What's that going to prove?

Actually, that sounds like a good idea. I hope these cows are successful and starve themselves to death.