TRO:3063 - the last few commissions

Hello to all.

I have finally gotten a firm grip on my finances. Payments for everyone! Eriance, JP – you’re all going to get your dough. Yay!

Geoff has moved from House ‘Mechs to the Periphery. Unfortunately for my writing, he has gutted a couple of the writeups. Fortunately for the TRO, he has… gutted a couple of the writeups. Yes, they needed gutting, not because they were uninteresting stories, but because they were interesting stories – just, you know, not appropriate for a TRO. In trying to shoehorn the Reader’s Digest Condensed version of ‘Hunter’s Paradise and What We Found There’ into a 750-word limit, I neglected to include very much about the TRO entry itself – the BattleMech known to Solaris VII fans as ‘Death Incarnate’.

Geoff fixed that good. Once I got over my distress at losing the writeup, I agreed with his changes. I usually do. It needed polishing – Geoff has blind spots just like I do – but I knew what he was shooting for and just tightened the script a bit. Still a pretty good story.

A friend of mine said that he’d read the previous TRO we did, the TRO:3062, and even that had more interesting stories attached to the ‘Mechs than the average Catalyst or FanPro TRO. Of course he is biased in my favor, but I rely on Bill to shoot it to me straight when it comes to the writing. See, he’s not a big fan of fluff in general, so I know if he has a comment, it’s usually pithy and to the point. He doesn’t like to linger over what amounts to fanfic. It’s encouraging, especially as this TRO is heaps and heaps better written than the 3062.

Lee Madison responded (at last!) and we are on a more even keel. He is working on his two commissions. I look forward to great things from this man – which is why I’ve stuck by him even after two months of silence.

Eric is currently schoolin’ and that is priority numero uno. However, he has taken a commission on a VTOL and we will see what he cooks up. All I can say is that it will not be a helicopter, and it will NOT be name ‘Eragon’. I am also going to approach him on bended knee and ask for a redo of the Cataphract III, which I have looked at over and over for the past three days. I still find it visually confusing and my friend Bill agrees. I may also commission Eric to do a tank, if he is willing to give it a try.

No response from Mike and the Velite yet, but he has sent a rough draft of the turret so that is something. He has other things on his mind and frankly, he is another artist who is so good that I am willing to wait.

I am going to pay my artists and then I will set up the next (and final) round of vehicle commissions. There are four:

- Striker II - a FWL medium wheeled tank with a 4-ton infantry bay. The existing turret is too derivative of the original Striker art and must be replaced. I would like to retain the rest of the vehicle’s outlines, however.

- Panther – a tracked heavy tank, this features twin PPCs and dual SRM-4 launchers. The art is inadequate for the purpose of this TRO and must be redone, preferably in an action setting.

- Sarpedon – another FWL design, this is a tracked medium tank with a gauss rifle. The art is inadequate for the purpose of this TRO and must be redone, preferably in an action setting.

- Jian MMTV – this is a wheeled medium mobile tactical vehicle which has a 4-ton infantry bay, four Streak-4 missile launchers and a set of firing ports for the embarked infantry. It is too derivative of Mike Sulllivan’s work and must be redone, hopefully retaining the general outlines of the original art.

There! That should wrap up the loose ends. I will probably come across some other stuff that needs re-doing, but this is contingent on my funds. I am rapidly approaching the $2000 mark for art expenditures, but anyone visiting these pages will agree that I have been getting good art for the money.

On a side note, I listen to conservative talk radio in the morning (mostly Glenn Beck) and NPR in the afternoon, on my rides to and from work. I like to think I have achieved a kind of balance. However, I’ve noticed some disturbing patterns with both.

Conservative talk radio hosts actually only talk for about a half hour of each hour of programming. The rest is advertising, and it’s not very encouraging advertising at that. The bulk of it seems to be aimed at stupid people. I mean, really, when the man on the radio repeats the phone number no less than seven times, you know the target audience is not very bright. Or discerning. The ads themselves are usually aimed at people in deep trouble with their mortgage, their credit cards or the IRS.

NPR, on the other hand, tries to aim at the liberal highbrow audience. They deny any bias whatever, but I have my suspicions. Why do I think they give the news with a liberal bias? Well, one example was when a interviewer repeatedly used the word ‘harsh’ instead of the word ‘strict’ when referring to another fellow’s honest attempt to repay his medical bills on an installment basis. I know NPR is choosing those words deliberately to make me feel pity for the interviewee, who is in the same boat as the rest of us. And I resent being manipulated, especially with buzzwords.


I’m just sayin’.

Steve