Mosiac Image Generator

From time to time you stumble on something cool on the web... today it's Wil Wheaton's blog from a day or two ago: here.

Here's my mosiac using the 249 (as of tonight) photos in the database:
Add your own today! ^_^;

Boxing Day Haul

Quick post more to do with the excitment of discovering a new game than the actual shopping (although that was cool too). I gave my brother a bunch of Star Wars Miniatures "Starship Battles" for his non-denominational annual year-end gift (aka a X'mas present in some circles). Yes, I was going a little nuts with the spending, but in my view, it was kind of half for myself anyway since... well, it takes 2 to play anyway. And did we play - I think we squeezed in 3 games as of today. And the great thing is, since it's a relatively newly launched game, there aren't that many rules to worry about (and even less errata published so far).

Ref. the following:
about clone strike

My brother and I hit the local gaming shop this year as we do every year for our Boxing Day ritual and found that the store was able to get in a case of the old Clone Strike expansion. My brother bought a few boxes. Found a few cool characters including Yoda, young Anakin, and a couple of Jedi who appeared in Episodes 2 and 3 of the films.

But the big "best buy" this year was a case of the "Bounty Hunters" expansion set. The store owner, who is on a first name basis with my brother, pointed out that he had cases to liquidate... and since I was ready to buy 2 or 3 at $20 apiece anyway, it was a no-brainer at only $80 a case (that's like getting 2 boxes free). My brother and I split the cost (sort of, but I'm not counting - it's the holiday season after all).

Finally, I also grabbed a new Warhammer tank model to add to my alien army. It's been something I've been putting off forever. And I think I've reached a point in my WH40K hobby where I'm just collecting the army models just for completeness since I've grown weary of experimenting with failure-inducing army construction... "stick with what you know" is my motto these days.

SF: Later Years 3

Collegehumour.com posted the newest video in their series!! Here it is (click the white space below):



If you missed them, here are the previous chapters.

I'm Power Girl Dammit!!!

Blinky's been busy - anybody remember that Powergirl fan-film I posted a while back? Yes, BlinkyTV has shot a sequel...

Don't forget to check out all the other neat-o stuff he's been up to as well!

Transformers Teaser 2

Depending on how you look at it, this is actually "teaser 1" because well... the first teaser that was released earlier this year didn't really have anything to do with anything...

Anyway - Yahoo Movies has it HERE. So check it out.

I'm not particularly excited - still no action footage but well... kinda neat. We'll see. The full trailer ought to do more for me to get me excited.

little gems in JLU

This isn't a review in the strictest sense, but I should mention that I'm loving the boxed set DVD for Justice League Unlimited. The packaging says "season one" on it, but it's actually the third season of the long-running "Justice League" show that started 2001 (after it underwent a slight reformatting and a title change). In fact, depending on who you ask, this box contains either just 1 season of 26 episodes, or 2 seasons of 13 episodes.

One thing I especially like about it is that it strikes a particular balance with its light-hearted moments such as in the Mr.Miracle episode... The show reintroduces the Flash after a very conspicuous absence in the early episodes. He's confiding with Elogated Man about how "they still treat[him] like their teenaged sidekick!" (this is, BTW, a nod to Wally West's history as Kid Flash back in the 70's). "Do you think I'm immature?"


Camera zooms out to reveal......that The Flash and Elogated Man have been engaged in Rock'em Sock'em Robots the whole time! "Not a bit," says Elogated Man. ^_^;

Wallpaper: "World's Finest"

A couple of years ago DC revisited the "World's Finest" concept by launching a new semi-stand-alone title teaming up their two biggest icons. The book didn't even have a name and featured the Superman logo surrounded by the Batman logo... officially tho, it was called "Superman Batman" - I still like to call it "World's Finest."
After I started to let Superman Returns grow on me (and Batman Begins didn't need any such probationary period) I, like a million other fanboys out there) starting dreaming about a team-up with the latest movie interpretations of these icons. So here's my take on the "World's Finest" logo. Yeah yeah, I just threw it together real quick. Just a thought.

reaction: DOA movie

Yes, it's out. No, it's not available in North America. But it is all over the web if you know where to look for it.

Lower your expectations and you'll be just fine. They weren't kidding when they said they were going for "Charlie's Angels." It's a billed as an "action-comedy" (which sadly also means the supporting cast were much more entertaining than the starring B-list cast giving C-list performances)... Seriously, some of this dialogue belongs in an episode of Power Rangers.

Watch it for the eye-candy, don't watch it because you're a hardcore DOA video game fan.

Better than: Street Fighter starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
Not as good as: Mortal Kombat starring Robin Shou (who happens to have a cameo appearance in this movie)
More accurate adaptation of a game than: Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins.

Happy 8 Auditions End!!

It's official - the 8th generation of Morning Musume will be Mitsui Aika (I've been rooting for her since the beginning). I don't know if it was her braces making her face like that, but she had the cutest smile of the 8 finalists...

Anyway, here's the Sanspo News site's article (if you can read Japanese)

And the fan-sites are already popping up. They posted a clip from the weekly Hello!Morning show showing when the winner was announced and the rest of Morning Musume's reactions. They must've just finished filming an "Aruiteru" performance because they're in their goofy "marching" costumes and hats.

Anyway, a hearty good luck and "gan-ba-te" to Aika!!

life-sized Lego dark lord of the sith

Just thought I'd post this since I had my USB cable on the phone handy...
This is a pic I snapped at the mall this weekend. And yes, it appears to be made entirely out of actual Lego bricks. Not the most accurate shapes in the world, but then who's checking (except me?). It's just cool.
It kinda looks like it was originally intended to be prize for a draw (that box thing next to it had what looked like an empty slot for tickets or something).

Chrysanthemum: Instant

I'll be honest with you up front... I'm not particularly experienced with traditional Chinese drinks. I like them enough but don't ask me for advice - I'm no medicine man. But I have been told by those wiser than myself that chrysanthemum tea is supposed to be good for me and has anti-biotic properties. Is this true? I don't know... but it does soothe my sore throat in the winter time. At least, this instant variety does.

Presented in a typical silvery foil packet, this is a single serve product that makes a decent sized mug of warm tea (although, it would also have you believe that you could serve it cold). Logic would dictate however, that hot water desolves any drink mix better than cold water would.

The content of the foil packet is sweetly scented; so far so good – the ingredients seem rather straight-forward. It listed simply chrysanthemum then sugar and honey. And yes, it does smell very real. But like I said before: I'm not big on genuine Chinese herbal drinks so I'd be hard pressed to tell you if that's really chrysanthemum extract I'm drinking.

It's enough to say that I'll take their word for it. It does taste and smell like a sweet flowered tea (a little bit like jasmine). In any case, I can't get over how good it feels. I have a feeling this'll easily replace my taste for hot chocolate on a cold day.

Maid-Cafe - I'm almost ashamed

I never thought I'd live to see something as tacky as this (and yes, its ranks up there and even surpasses the whole Hooters concept).

http://www.imaidcafe.com/

I never thought I'd see the day when somebody would have the nerve to build one these in the middle of uptown Toronto (Markham to be specific). I'd go, but... then I'd feel like an even bigger loser than I already am.

about clone strike

I still haven't been back to a comics shop since last week (I will go to a different one tonight on the way home). But if you read these two posts I found floating in the ether, you can sort of put two and two together...

http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=20989
In this post the guy says there was some f*ck up with the European branch of WotC - seems the general rule is you never reissue an out-of-print expansion, but then nobody stopped WotC Europe from doing it. This was back in April.

http://holonet.swrpgnetwork.com/showthread.php?threadid=234048
Then in this thread, somebody else in North America (besides myself) claims his local comics shop tells him there's a full-on reissue happening. If you ask me, I suspect WotC turned around and tried to cover up the mistake from WotC Europe and make the reissue an official release...

Personally, I feel the secondary market for these things is ridiculous. Some times it feels like I'm the only one who actually PLAYS with my Minis - which makes reading material like the "Ultimate Missions" supplements very frustrating when they make reference to playing pieces that I not only have but are also going for $50 on eBay apiece.

Street Fighter-The Later Years

Floating around the Internet is a bunch of stuff produced by amateur film-makers... Watch and laugh at the nostalgia:

Click the white space below this line...


Then click the white space below this line too...

Essence of Chicken - is it soup?

I just took a swig of the what could be the weirdest Asian product I've EVER tried. Apparently it's "perfect for gift giving" if one were to believe what my mother tells me (and in fact, the bottles she gave me to try were regifted from my Japanese aunt)... if anything this is not just a Chinese thing then.

The packaging would have you know that this is all-natural and is made of the best quality chicken ever (KFC, this is NOT). This "essence of chicken" come in a small bottle of only a few of ounces - just as well as they also mention that once opened, it stays fresh in your refrigerator for only 24 hours or so.

One cool thing tho is that the stuff comes in a pretty snazzy unresealable container. It's glass but instead of a twist off cap, it's a metal ring that holds a seal in place - then you use the ring itself to give yourself leverage to pull off the cap. Weird.

Anyway, as for the drink itself... it taste exactly like what you'd think something called "essence of chicken" might taste like: sort of like an unseasoned chicken soup... I'm told they sort of boil chicken - bones and all until all the solids are completely liquified. Well, that sounds just about like making a soup to me. The only thing particularly strange is that this particular brand (called "Brand's" by the way; kind of the reverse of NoName brand, don't you think?) also added lingzhi... which, if you'd believe a Chinese medicine man, would pretty much infuse you with invulnerability or perhaps even render you immortal or something. Unfortunately, it also gives the concoction a bitter taste (like every herbal additive). Just as well, I didn't drink the whole thing and I'll polish it off tomorrow.

Maybe Super Mario was onto something after all, what with all those Mushroom power-ups. I don't recall him ever boiling whole chickens before in the games though.