Chris Bucholtz

Welcome back, Ron!

Not to criticize anyone, but how many websites make you download a .pdf to get the latest and, for some folks, most important news? And how many people recognize that "Mission Brief" contains hotel information? It's a layer between the reader and the information.

I was reading the new issue of he Hook (the Tailhook Association's magazine) and ran across this: James and I have each won this "ID the airplane" contest before. The prize is a mug and a year's free membership to the association. How Ironic is it that James took "his final cut" right after winning?

The problem is, once you've had two or three GSB contests and the same people win gold, then some folks will AGAIN think there's some "insiders' club" or something. At a certain level, some folks have a sportsmanship problem that leads to their perception problem. I've gone to 24 Nationals and I've won four times (statistically, less than the average 24-time attendee) and it's not because there's a cabal or because I'm not a good modeler (I hope!). It's because that's the way it goes. If you can't accept that, or if your personal identity is defined by where your model finishes, you're going to have a rough time in contests (or in watching team sports, or following politics or anything where there's winners and non-winners).

"The armor judge in the photo has since quit IPMS and who can blame him?" An update: that member contacted me and told me he's staying in IPMS. I would like to think that's because enough members contacted him with positive sentiments to keep him in the fold.

"If you tried to book a reservation from the 16th to the 20 th, it would not let you probably because the block was only for reservations from the 17th the 20th." Having the first day of the event unavailable is inexplicable. As for Tuesday, the day before the event starts, I know a number of us mentioned that Tuesday needed to be available in the block as late as July, so I'm bummed no one swung this with the hotels. If you're coming from the west coast, you just can't hop a plane and be there Wednesday when the show starts - flights west-to-east are going against time zones even if you leave at the crack of dawn. And if you're a vendor, you need to be on site for sales on Wednesday - so getting there Tuesday is kind of important. Oh well. We live and learn (hopefully, next time).

I suspect it's the same phenomenon with messed up many of us last year at San Marcos - the dates for the blocks were provided as just the dates of the show. Anyone coming from the West Coast as a vendor, for example, needs to get there on Tuesday to be set up for the show's start. And yet, for the last few years in a row, that has not been possible with the hotels - Tuesday is not included as part of the bock so it kicks you out (or so few Tuesday rooms are included the block fills up and, again, you're kicked out). It's an oversight that the e-board should address clearly in the parameters. Meanwhile, after 76 attempts, I got through on the phone to the Monona Terrace. All booked.

Yep. At 10:01, the Monona Terrace was unavailable on line and the phone wouldn't go through. I finally got a more expensive option 2.5 miles from the venue to work, so I have a hotel - but with more expense and less convenience.

Thanks for this, Jeff!

That big, ugly thing is Daedon Shoshonenis, an Entelodont that lived in North America from 23 to 18 million years ago. It was a 12-foot-long, 1700-pound monster that was omnivorous, and while it could certainly kill prey it probably did a lot of scavenging, primarily by intimidating other predators, which were largely non-social in North America at the time. Here, one is giving chase to a Parahippus Pawniensis, a three-foot tall horse that was one of the first to have fused lower leg bones for fast running and a single toe/hoof, with vestigial toes. Daedon came from the 1:20 Paleocraft kit, with virtually no modifications. Parahippus started life as a 3D-printed 1:35 "startled plains zebra," which has extra toes added from styrene rod and a new non-striped part job. The base featured plants from Silfor, Scenic Express and an unfortunate bristle brush that happened to be on my workbench at the wrong time.

The IPMS social media pages need to be run like any organization's pages. Coke doesn't allow some jag-off from Pepsi to come on their page and talk smack about them or their customers. GM has no compunction about deleting posts from the guy who insists his 1968 Camaro is haunted and it's GM's fault. Stauffers immediately deletes posts from that one person who posts about his exceptionally intimate relationship with stuffing. We are under no obligation to accommodate everyone on our own social media page, especially when the sole intent is to cause controversy and make the organization look bad.

Dave is the only person in a position to head off what will be a catastrophic set of decisions that will end the society. I'm glad we updated the process for disbursing our assets in the event of dissolution, because that's where we are headed right now. BTW, I'm not resigning as Journal editor for one of the specific reasons Gil cited. I don't believe you can save something by removing yourself from it.

Hey! Please volunteer! So we can screw you when weasels scream about something on social media! This is no way to run a railroad. Absolutely pathetic.

Amen to the Tuesday-night option. It allows us west coasters to be there for Wednesday.

Thanks for doing this, Jeff. It's very helpful for those of us who will attend as anything beyond a regular attendee.