Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li (Trailer)

It looks like generic action-flick to me. No Jean-Claude Van Damme in sight, thankfully. If only for that, I will have to watch this. :)

White X'mas by Nakazawa Yuko

My gift to you this year is a trip back to 2004 in the form of a clip from Nakazawa Yuko singing White Christmas...

Trailer: Wolverine

Thanks go to Weirdguy for the heads-up... here it is from the official Myspace page. The official HD version trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD


...interesting, Sabertooth must have grown taller between the events in this film and his appearance in the first X-Men movie. :)

can of fat

...After about 3 and a half months, this is the can of the saturated fat collected from my bacon drippings...

reaction: i-con rock throne

What is there to say? It's a stool. Admittedly, it's a comfortable thick cushion to put my fat butt cheeks on. I got it for 2 reasons: it was on sale ($20 instead of the usual $30) and because I was previously playing Rock Band 2 while perched on an old department store fold-out job of a stool... not very comfortable after 3 or 4 songs.

But where does one draw the line from "furniture" to cheap gaming gimmick? Well, I don't know who I-con subcontracts out to for manufacture of their "Rock Throne" but I could feel the cheapness the moment I took it out of the package. I felt it in the form of a metal shard jabbing into my index finger like. The debris appears to be a small metal filing from one of the staples on the underside of the seat cushion. A real furniture company would have quality control to prevent this sort of debris remaining on the final shipping product.

After plucking the sliver out of my skin and applying a Band-Aid, I inspected the seat carefully to make sure there were no other surprises. There weren't, but my point is clear: be careful when you unpack yours.

Assembly is relatively simple. It's a seat cushion, a tri-pod bottom with a locking clamp to hold it open, and a stem with 3 holes drilled into it. A bolt and wingnut (and washer) is inserted into one of the 3 holes along the stem to lock the stool in place. So while you're limited to exactly 3 fixed heights, rest assured it's 3 very solid heights and you won't be accidentally dropping the setting while playing.

In fact, the only down side is seeing the embossed i-con logo on the faux-leather staring at you when you're NOT sitting on it reminding you, "why did I ever buy this anyway?"

beta test of the PS Home

So I get home today and I find this email in my inbox from the Playstation Network. Apparently I've been randomly selected to be part of their beta test. I don't know what this is all about, but I hope it's not another Facebook or Myspace upstart project because we have enough of those.

Besides which I have the very blog you are currently reading (if you are indeed reading). I'll let you know if this turns out to be a big deal.

The Great Debates: Most Likely Transformers

There are two schools of transforming robots: the giant robot or the
microscale robots.

Which scenario is more likely to occur?

A) Cars and jets that transform into big robots?

B) Smaller objects such as portable music players, binoculars, cameras,
etc turning in smaller robots?

Why is that scenario more likely than the other? Discuss.

What the douche?!

So if you've been talking to me lately, you may have picked up on the fact that I scored big time with Rock Band 2. Sure I had to deal with the stress of not knowing when I'd get it (and if never, worrying about how to go about getting a refund). The short version of that story is that I picked up my set from a local Sears Catalog counter only a few days ago. But I had actually ordered through their web site at a ridiculous $160 plus a $20 discount for spending over $100 on-line.

So with $40 of budget burning a hole in my pocket... I was excited to learn that Futureshop had the AC/DC "Live at Donnington" add-on track pack for only $30. That's just under 80 cents per song. But as usual something smells fishy.

Firstly, Best Buy has it listed as $40. But could I just walk in and price-match it? No! When one place has it in stock, the other won't!

Secondly, there's one of those monthly 10% off everything sales going on right now... but can I choose in-store pick-up? No! It's "temporarily unavailable!"
If I choose the cheapest shipping option, it's $2... which pretty much eliminates the sale discount... all for the price of waiting for it to arrive in the mail (the estimate being Nov27; that's 5 calendar days from now!).

I think what pisses me off the most about the situation is that I could have picked it up yesterday on the way home from work but instead told myself that patience is a virtue... But it looks like I'll wind up going in person later anyway and not saving a penny... and not having been able to play it during the weekend.

Chinese Democracy is now

Guns n' Roses hasn't released an album of new material in 17 years. On Sunday we'll be able to get their new album in stores.

But if you want to preview the material, the entire album is currently streaming on the GNR Myspace page. Check it out.

Star Trek trailer is out in HD

Apple is hosting here:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/

Seeing the miserable string of disappointments the Trek franchise has endured the last decade, any shake-up is a welcome change. But a full-on remake? Discuss in the comments.

How much for that Iron Man?!

I'm usually fairly savvy when it comes to keeping an ear open for the best price on collectibles... but nothing prepared me for this weekend. Several months ago, I read on-line that Kotobukiya had the rights to produce new cold-cast porcelain goods for Marvel. Besides the ArtFX line for Star Wars, Kotobukiya isn't particularly well-known for anything but anime PVC figures.

Add into the mix that typical cold-cast porcelain statues in this genre run in the $200 range, and when the photos of their Iron Man offering were published and they looked an aweful lot like those... It didn't take long for me to think, "I ought to save some money."First came the various on-line vendors claiming that the MSRP would be $170... and that $150 would be their "special price to you." Then came it's appearance at a local comic book shop... which I missed (it was on a table but silly me, I forgot to ask how much it was). I even stopped at a competitor because often they're known for having somewhat better prices... not this time (they were asking over $220). But down the street...

When I asked about it, the "comic-book-guy" said, "$115" and before I had time to allow my jaw to drop, I answered, "I'll take it!" Now I was slightly worried when the UPC scanner rang up $900. Clearly, that was a mistake, but momentarily I just prayed that neither was comic-book-guy mistaken. As an added bonus, 3 AAA batteries are indeed included in the box for the LED feature. Both his repulsor gauntlets glow bright blue-white along with his eyes and his chest.
At 1/6 scale Iron Man stands just about 13-1/2 inches thanks to his chest-piece-inspired base.
And as I haven't shared my living room in quite some time... here's what it's like nowadays. I seem to always be short on space.

Soulstorm updated!

So I noticed two things tonight...

Firstly, my previous post was my 666th post on this blog.

Secondly, Dawn of War Soulstorm has finally been patched!
Yes, it's actually been out a couple of weeks now but tonight was the first time I happen to log in online to see the message in the online lobby. I mean really, at one point (about 2 months ago, I guess) I even stopped going to Relicnews (which by the way, turns out not to be an official Relic forum but a fan community who happens to be in very good standing with Relic). So anyway, go to Fileplanet and get the patch!

In fact, get both v1.1 and v1.2 because Relic mysteriously patched the patch almost right away within a few days of each other.

On a side note, hope you kept your original "Soulstorm.exe" file if you previously no-cd-hacked it because the patcher won't recognize the hacked version and will ask you to reinstall the game. No we'll need to rehack the damn thing after the patch installs. :-/

Ayanami Rei by Kotobukiya

Ayanami Rei always sort of bugged me. The whole cloning thing was beyond creepy but also it bothered me that we were introduced to her half-mummified in the early episodes. To this day I still don't understand why fanboys drool over her in bandaged form. I guess it's kind of like those people who are fascinated by car accidents.

Kotobukiya released their version of Ayanami earlier this year to coincide with the launch of the new Evangelion re-edit movies. Rei comes perched on a rock in fine form - no injuries here... maybe she's one of the fresh clones ...hmmm?



Her "plug-suit" is painted a pearlescent white finish. But more interesting is the pale blue tint of her hair. It's indeed opaque but also partially transluscent. Ayanami is also perched on a bust of EVA-00.



I don't know whether to expect any future Evangelion releases (before the next movie event). And I'm not even sure if I'd care for a matching Asuka Langley Soryu figure in PVC. I would love to have further Evangelion interpretations if they all look as gorgeous, but neither Asuka nor Shinji need to be in their pilot uniforms.

Unboxing Damocles

I'm looking through the starter set for AT-43.For the money (and I think a fair price should be just under $100), you do get what you pay for. The AT-43 Initiation Set comes with a multi-language book of rules and introductory scenarios, dice, a retracting measuring tape, an assortment of terrain pieces, a double-sided map to play on, and a selection of troops for the United Nations of Ava and the invading alien Therians.
Is it worth it? I would say, "it depends." Like all starter sets for any given game, you do get value. This many troops (plus the mecha) could easily retail $100 if purchased seperately. So if you rationalize it, you are getting all the accessories in the box free.
So what do you get that's "free?" You get dice, measuring tape, a play surface about 2'x3' in size. The box is exactly as the title suggests: a basic initiation into tabletop miniature gaming. It is however, beautifully illustrated. The book comes with 6 simple missions, starting from the most basic scenarios. Each mission, progressively more complex, introduces players to more rules.
I wish Warhammer40k had something laid out like that when I started. Instead my brother taught me using a scaled down army but with ALL the rules in play - indeed, jumping me in with both feet... This will most definitely come in handy for me to demo the game to other n00bs. Will I play it with my brother? Unlikely, but it could help get us up to speed with the game system. Thankfully, each mission is described as lasting no more than 30 minutes.
A final note: one thing that irritates me about the set is that a set of dice and measuring tape are also the exact contents of the first AT-43 accessories set... except there is no "indirect fire template" (indirect fire only comes into play with the advanced rules so you wouldn't need it for the Operation Damocles box). But this also means the only way to get the template later is to buy the damn dice and measuring tape again. Although... in my experience with tabletop gaming, you can never have too many dice.

Media Manager is free? Or not?

Did anybody else get this email from Playstation Underground? The big banner proclaims that there is now a version of PSP Media Manager that is free to download. But when I click on the link, I get a 404 error. What the hell? It's as though somebody at Sony (or SCEA anyway) suddenly came to their senses and thought, "wait, why are we giving away a product we've been trying to sell for $30 for the last 3 years?"

Indeed, if you search around the Playstation Network site a bit, you'll find a "beta" version of PSPMM that is marked free (but follows the same dead link), and right below you see a "PSPMM Pro" that actually displays the retail cover art for the PSPMM we've all seen but were too smart to pay for anyway. And let's face it... only smart people read my blog, yes?

I've ...*ahem*... previously demo'ed Media Manager. And to be honest, I didn't really like it all that much. It was a little bit too... shall we say... Mac-like. I'm the kind of person who likes to know where his files are physically located. And on top of which, by the time PSPMM came out, I'd already been using a freeware alternative I was very happy with.

Misato Katsuragi by Kotobukiya

Misato Katsuragi was the older woman... You know the one. She was sexy, playful with our angst-ridden teenaged main character, and had her own personal demons. She also reminds me that I never thought back then that some day I'd actually be older than "the older woman." You see, I was there when anime was just slowly becoming popular. I actually collected Neon Genesis Evangelion on VHS when ADV-Films still called themselves A.D.Vision. I'm not sure when new-school became old-school, however. All I know is that 1996 was a long time ago.

Misato is a free-standing 1/6 scale figure. She sports her trademark NERV uniform jacket and her purple mini-dress. Her cross pendant hangs from a small string, which positioned carefully, one can hide the knot holding it in place. Also, the her pistol is a seperate piece one must wedge into place.

Some folks complained that her nose was too pointy but it's all in the angles. I'm very picky with my PVC-renditions of figures because I often have a picture in my mind's eye of how a 2D design should be rendered in 3D and not every anime PVC delivers on that expectation. In fact, the only thing that bothers me about this sculpt is the molding process around her legs.

I own very few figures in a kneeling position. What disappoints me is that if one gets too close, one will notice that her thigh is actually connected to her calf. The sculpt simply did not provide enough sharpness in relief to give the illusion of an actual human leg bent at the knee. Perhaps some shading effects with the paintjob might have helped.

List of crap

Yes, yes, I know, I haven't blogged in a while. Life just full of disappointments. First I abandoned both ebloggy and livejournal because I just couldn't maintain my anonymity much since more and more people around the office have been reading this blog and/or following my Twitter. Secondly, I was getting bored of it anyway - plus I really haven't had much to share since moving into my house.

So here are a list of things I probably should have blogged on this site but haven't.

1) picked up a new PVC figure of Misato Katsuragi a few weeks back. I haven't even taken the time to photograph her, let alone blog her.

2) built the Drop-Pod model I mentioned only 2 posts ago in less than a couple of hours.

3) the Land Raider Terminus Ultra project needs an update: I've started painting it.

4) I never went back to finishing up my Mini-Munny paint project. I'm just lazy that way.

5) the AT-43 company is coming along... badly. I really don't know what I'm doing but I'm starting to be convinced I should just ebay a starter set. At least then I'll know what a game plays like with their introductory scenarios.

6) still watching early episodes of SG-1 and Atlantis. I'm in the 3rd season of SG-1 and just wrapping up Atlantis. Also watching Code Geass fansubs, and Gurren Lagann on DVD.

7) did not have time to watch Incredible Hulk yet but tried out the blu-ray interactive features and all I can say is, this is what I always thought DVD should be. More or this later.

bad timing for a n00b?

I think I picked a very bad time to stumble on AT-43. This is a table-top war-game similar to Warhammer 40'000. But instead of being a fully comprehensive hobby including miniatures-building and collecting, AT-43 is more of a straight-forward customizable skirmish miniature-gaming. How straight-forward? Read an army-book, and together with the freebies from Rackham's own website full of preview materials, you can start building your army. So really, AT-43 has one of the more affordable start-up costs for gaming.

But... naturally, that doesn't stop me from foolishly spending a bunch of money. Here's my first legally playable company:Like WH40k, AT-43 requires a playable army follow a specific pattern. In gaming terms, it's what makes playing a game balanced. In WH40k you need a powerful unit known as an "HQ" and then a pair of regular units known as "Troops." This is known as the regular "Organization Chart." In AT-43, the same sort of thing is called a "platoon pattern." But this is where things kind of fall apart for me.

Last week being an impatient idiot, I randomly grabbed a "Hero" box from the shelf. Thankfully, after reading the Therians army-book, I found a pattern I can legally follow using her as the priority-slot on the pattern (it's called the Web-Striders faction). But now I've also picked up a unit of Bane Goliaths for her to join (since fielding her alone would be kind of ridiculous).

Now... naturally, you ask, if I say it's cheap to start-up... how much? I'll be bluntly honest.
The Nina-Zero/Babylon-Zero hero box was $45 (I've forgotten to photograph the large Babylon-Zero model). And the Bane Goliath set of 3 was $45. And to at least play the game, I've already purchased the army-book about $18. So even before the rule-book (which I bought even though it's not particularly necessary to get started), I've already spent just over $100.

Now here is where we get to: Just because it's playable, will it be enjoyable. In my experience, the answer will likely be "no." You can only do so much with a single unit. I'm sure I could wreck havoc but how much strategy can be had with a single team of fighters? Not much. Run, shoot, hide, shoot, and then run some more. But I can tell you right off the top where you find savings... It's time. And you won't be investing in tools and paint either.

...now that I'm out of my little high from reading the books for the first time... I should probably start shopping around. But the fact is, I would much rather support my local stores because if not, there's a small chance they'll stop carrying AT-43 now that the news has broken: Fantasy Flight Games will no longer be distributing for Rackham. It's time to rally!!! Show support so that Rackham will find a new distributor or ...something.

Unboxing today

Got another box in the mail today.This came flying in only 4 business days - 5 if you count the long weekend we had in Canada. Frickin' sweet!
Can't wait to get started on this Drop Pod - it's a long-time concept that's never had plastic model until now. But I'll be honest... I just really liked the opening cinematic cut-scene of the original Dawn of War computer game when we saw them raining down on the planet over the horizon and you knew... the Space Marines were about to kick some serious ass.

Land Raider Terminus Project 4

It's been quite some time since my last update. Finally had time to spray a base coat of black, let it dry, then tape off the tracks and spray some red over the it all.
So there's my very lame update for the week. The guns are in place and I did the old switcheroo as planned (check out the Razorback model which is now refitted with the Heavy Bolter turret).

What's left: need to do some touch-ups on the Heavy Bolter turret to get it looking right and matching my completed Razorback paint. And of course, some blue and white (actually Fortress Grey; because I've come to the conclusion that pure white on vehicles looks... a little too clean).

Losers

By way of ArsTechnica.com, here's a news story that caught my eye.

It's one thing to be a scam artist and disappear off-line. But scam-artist who gets caught on camera? And their physical addresses and private contact information posted on a whistle-blowing revenge site? EPIC FAIL!

Land Raider Terminus Project 3

My Land Raider kit arrived early this week and I've spend my time building it... and also assembling the left-over sponsons from the Predator kit I mentioned earlier.

Here is my collection of Space Marines tanks as of right now.
And a closer look at the Land Raider Terminus pattern:The details on top aren't finalized just yet. In fact, it occurred to me last night that I had to "cheat" a little bit. I had to dig back into my older bitz-box to find a non-pintle hatch because, obviously, each tank kit comes with only one of each (with a pintle mount for a weapon and without). But really, just like all the other mixing and matching I've been doing, the math still works. In these photos you will only ever see 4 non-pintle hatches... spread out over 4 tanks of course. This worked out because when I built the spare turret for the Predator, it also had a pintle-mounted bolter. (see previous entry)
At this point, I need to decide what to do about those hatches, any add-ons like smoke-launchers, etc. After that it's onto painting. And I also need to decide what to do with that Rhino which already has its black primer coat. Hmm... I'm not sure if it'll be on the red team as well, of if I should give it to the white team (who are in need of some additional support anyway).

Land Raider Terminus Project 2.5

I haven't posted an update to this project in a while because... quite frankly my Land Raider kit is still making its way across the Atlantic ocean in the international snail-mail tube.

But let's see what we can do with those spare bits from the Predator kit. If you're me, you had previously built a typical kit featuring options and learned that you can't actually use all the parts in the box - you will have bits leftover... to either throw out or collect dust in projects you plan but will never follow through on.
But also, if you're me, then you also built a previous Predator Destructor. Space Marines players will know that the only thing that distinguishes one Predator from another is its turret. Well, with the leftover parts from the Predator kit I downgraded into a Rhino, I've built a second turret for my previous Predator project and magically converted it from a Predator Destructor into a Predator Annihilator.

Minor Life Update

After several months of having dropped the Fusion Ace at the eBloggy
account and never really latching onto Live Journal... I've come to the
conclussion that very few people missed me anyway. Which unfortunately
leaves me with nowhere to anonymously vent about real life... And
nowhere to be therapeutic with myself (because there are too many people
reading this blog who know me in real life).

In the mean time, a few notes about what's been happening.

1) the house is doing fine. In fact, there was a complaint I filed last
summer that FINALLY got fixed. The company sent over a team to patch up
the unfinished ledge under my basement window in the back. I understand
that I'm a victim of timing, but this was ridiculous. I closed in the
fall, and thus so did my Tarion report. And outdoors work like this can
only be done in the summer... And we've had nothing but rain this
summer. Well, it's done, and I'm happy.

2) I took on a co-op student tennant for the semester. He's actually my
direct cousin (on my mother's side) who I don't know very well. But so
far it's okay... Reminds me of my brother bumbling his way through life.
At least he's still in school so his life is pretty much laid out for
him for the next year or two. I wish he'd be more proactive about doing
his share of the chores (but that's probably my own fault for not
enforcing them). I mean he'll wash a used glass, but he won't actually
look at the sink and go "hmm... Maybe it's my turn to clear that."

3) Did I mention I finally got a PS3? Heh, yet another thing to do when
I'm home after work. Is it any wonder I never got cable? Although,
seriously, I'm starting to take it under consideration. Messing with
that antennae is getting on my nerves.

Land Raider Terminus Project 2

Now let's take a look at what comes in a Predator box. True to form as discussed in my previous post, the Predator is also based off the Rhino chassis. Like the Razorback, the Predator tank is also a Rhino kit with a bunch of stuff added on (for about $10).

[In fact, unless you're really strapped for cash, I don't see why anyone would ever want to pass on the spare parts and just buy the Rhino kit. But if this were so, then WH40K is probably not the hobby for you.]

Here's where the savings depend a lot on one's perspective. So far we've established something very important: no matter which kit you get, most of the time you are getting a Rhino with a bunch of extras. The those extras cost money, sure, but so would a Rhino on its own anyway. What costs even more money is if you order the Terminus upgrade kit from Games Workshop for a ridiculous $25. Between last post and this post, the very same set of extras you will need to build the Terminus my way is only about $15.

As a bonus, my way also gets me a couple of extra vehicles in the end.

So here is the Rhino built from the Predator box and the parts that I was really after in the first place...

Land Raider Terminus Project 1

The Terminus Ultra pattern (from the Apocalypse supplemental materials) is a rolling engine of destruction sporting a front-mounted Twin-Linked Lascannon, a pair of Twin-Linked Lascannons from side-sponsons. And a set of single Lascannons also on sponsons.

What you need:
- a Land Raider kit (of course)
- a Terminus upgrade bitz pack from Games Workshop... or if you're willing to spend a bit to save a bit, a Razorback kit and a Predator kit.

What you end up with:
A Terminus Ultra model, a Rhino APC model, and a Razorback model (with the Heavy-Bolter).

Let's look at the Razorback kit. Note the modular nature of Games Workshop kits: this kit's booklet also doubles as a the Rhino booklet. That's because the Razorback is just a Rhino with a turret on top. Meaning the turret costs $5 or so.

The nice thing about this project is that your can build your Razorback anyway. Through the magic of blogging, I will present you with my semi-finished Razorback. Just remember not to glue the turret in place. It'll be handy later.

when fast is too fast

I'm amused and PO'ed at the ads airing on television lately about how "reliable" and "fast" Rogers Internet is.

Last week, on a Thursday, I got a mail message warning me that I had reached 75% of my monthly bandwidth (that is, 45Gb total upload and download). Okay... that's fine I think. But then last night, the very same night my billing period rolled over I get an email telling me I've reached 100% (60Gb!)

One would make the case that I managed to use up 15Gb in the span of only 4 days! Fast indeed. Then again, this month has been highly unusual. My co-op student cousin moved in, my brother was also here with his own machine for Labour Day weekend. I've been downloading demos and videos like crazy for my new laptop and goodies for the new PS3. In fact, a glance at my bandwidth history shows that most months prior, I barely scratched 20Gb at all.

SG-1 novelty mirror

Besides being dirt-cheap to get on DVD, Stargate has something else going for it on the fandom level: it has some of the most iconic imagery this side of the Vulcan salute or a Jedi lightsabre. I saw this at the Silver Snail and had to get it.It's only 10 inches or so across (not even a whole foot). Made of a polystone material, glass, and clear PVC, this a replica of the Stargate as it appears in the SG-1 series. And other than being a novelty, it thankfully also doubles as a mirror when the sheet of PVC creating the watery ripple effect is removed...I say thankful because I'm sure someone will kick me in the nuts if I told them how much it cost... On the up side, thanks to the reasonable CAD/USD exchange rate lately, I don't feel like I was ripped off.

La Brute: I am Kid Asgard!

Want to waste some time?

Challenge my fighting avatar:
http://kid-asgard.labrute.com

The site is in French so English-speakers may not get some of the humourous elements in the text, but the game itself is not too hard to figure out.

Old School: Ranma 1/2

I stumbled on this over at Youtube tonight and I relived my university years.

Ranma 1/2 was a comedy anime about a boy cursed to become a girl whenever exposed to cold water (and turned back to normal in hot water). The story revolved around a love-hate relationship with a family friend's daughter and also hiding his secret identity as "the red-haired girl."

This is the season 6 series OP.


In the episode I remember most, Ranma's long-time friend Ukyo has been secretly preparing a jug of her family's secret recipe sauce the old fashion way (allow it to ferment for years)... when of course, Ranma's antics accidentally destroys the jug. I can't really remember the rest of the plot but I recall that the jug of sauce was supposed to be her gift to Ranma in a marriage proposal (just like every other running gag in the series). I wish I could dig out that old fansub VHS. I wonder where it got packed up to?

waking up from sleep mode

OK, so I got a puzzle for my readers and I just spent at least 90 minutes crawling the back-alleys of the web reading a million different sleep-mode problems in Vista and each one different from the last... and none of them the same as mine.

Actually, not accurate. I did find one person who does have the same problem - but nobody replied with a working solution.

Anyway, so folding down my laptop puts Vista to sleep mode. But on waking it up, Windows Live Messenger (currently v8.5) hangs. The icon appears in the system tray, but cannot be clicked (left or right). I need to use Task Manager to End Task and then restart it manually.

Anybody else see this before? Got a solution to share with me? Post a comment!!

Star Wars poster guy

I was at mrbabou's house last week showing off my laptop. So new, I hardly knew what the heck I was doing. But not new enough that I had already gotten it to look the way I wanted, with a sweet Star Wars saga wallpaper on the desktop - surely a requisite of any computer aficionado. Of course, like anybody else of our generation, he proclaimed his love for my sweet Star Wars saga wallpaper.

Anyway, so it got me thinking... where did I find this to begin with?? I'm not going to post it AGAIN, (because it seems to be have been stolen like a gazillion times). But I will post the result of my click-finger-numbing efforts. I finally traced down the source of the famous Star Wars Saga wallpaper.

I present to you, SimonZ's web site:
Just go into the posters section and dig around for a few versions of his original imaging work. The guy is genius, scouring the web for the best of Star Wars imagery in hi-res and then fading and pasting everything together. Check it out today!!

ad-hoc shelf customizing

I walk into the local shop hell-bent on getting their Nagato Yuki in white bunny suit. They were packing up for this weekend's FanExpo in Toronto so I wasn't even sure if had been packed up. Lucky for me, they had more than one - one that wasn't packed and was actually still MISB.Something unfortunate about adding Yuki to my display is that she's just a little bit to tall. Tsuruya-san fits because she's stooped over. But Yuki is the only one in the set (including future releases) that stands up straight. She doesn't really need it, but she does have a safety clip on a metal post that holds her at her left thigh... just in case of any tilting accidents.

My solution for the height problem... a set of fruit cups (eaten, of course). They just tall enough and stable enough for the next shelf above to rest in place. What say you?

My first Mini-Munny

What to do?

I finally picked up my first Mini Munny by Kid Robot. Its secret (randomly-packed) accessory turned out to be a Mohawk hairdo.

Does anybody have suggestions what to do with it? Come on, a single figure should be easier to have ideas for than two.

Darth Vader in Love

From the The Peter Serafinowicz Show... this be "Darth Vader in Love" ...the poor schmuck...

about nothing

Some upkeep...
For those missing my blog entries, my PC at home has finally driven me
to abandon it. You may have noticed my Twitter feed mentioning a recent
BSoD. Indeed since that incident on Monday evening, I haven't really
been up and running (except for a breif stint on Tuesday morning).
Either way, enough is enough and the effort to reinstall Windows on
potentially faulty 10-year-old hardware is not very appealing.

Today I placed an order at NCIX for a new laptop. This'll be my first
one (I've always thought of myself as a PC enthusiast; but over the
years have concluded that I don't upgrade often enough to make it worth
my time). Yet another lesson I picked up from EvilTwin (hellos go out to
wherever he is today): usability should prioritize over maintainability.

In the end I settled on an ASUS M50VM-A1. Not terribly fast and furious,
but it is still classed in the "gaming" category. Nvidia would have you
believe it's a multimedia device according to its description of the
9600M GS GPU. But on the bright side of everything, I spent about a
fraction of what I would have if I went with a pure-gaming rig like a
Dell XPS 1730. So for all intents and purposes, I'm happy.

Other crap...
Finished reading the rest of Marvel's "Annihilation: Conquest" event and
now looking forward to the collected editions to come for the relaunch
of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise. And more than that, the next
volume of Nova because his adventure is abruptly cut short in the middle
of the Conquest story-line... And I'm dying to read exactly what
happened while he wasn't in the main plot.

Went to the comics shop today and grabbed the first volume of Gurren
Lagann (I know, the second volume is out, I'm just late to the game). I
loved this series in fansub form (nothing beats free). I did get a CD
single of the theme song out of buying legit. Also followed Weirdguy to
Value Village again. This time I scored a replacement motor for my mini
RC car for only a few bucks. It's a complete set of upgrades, but really
all I was interested in was the motor... Maybe I'll sell off the rest to
Weirdguy as he also has a few Bit Char-G vehicles.

The "right now" wishlist

1) I want to take a nap. Despite getting home at a decent hour I still
managed to crawl into bed after 11pm.

2) I wish my credit card statement would finally arrive to indicate that
my previous billing period is over. There's another FREEing bunny at the
local shop waiting for me to buy!

3) I wish Sony would announce whatever plans they have for future bundle
deals on the PS3. The current ones on shelves are either the old Sixaxis
bundles or the newer one with Dualshock 3 and MGS4 (which is kind of
expensive for my taste).

4) While I'm at it, I think Dell needs to get some more stock so that
they can redo that deal with the extra controller and HDMI cable on the
PS3!

5) Speaking of Dell, shouldn't they roll-out a new XPS laptop model
soon? They're base model for the 1730 line-up still features only 8m
series GeForce video cards. 9m series DirectX-10 mobile solutions have
been available for months now.

6) I'm kind of hungry... I'd like some desert...

7) I wish my web-filter at the office made some sense. Most sites make
sense to filter... Others, not so much sense. I need my movie and tv
news (these are not "streaming media sites!").

pile of comics

Hooray: 3-in-1 post today.

Firstly, I take back the complaining I did over the weekend saying that I had "nothing to read" because I had a shipping confirmation from Amazon on Friday night. It was hard to know that a long-weekend meant a long-wait for mail to arrive by Tuesday. But in the meantime I very nearly cleared Metal Gear Ac!d 2 on my PSP. Very nearly.

Second, I'd like to thank Marvel for making me read the same cliffhanger twice... Idiots! I don't know who made this editorial decision, but lately I've noticed a lot of overlap with their collected editions. When I got the "Marvel Universe" volume of Marvel Civil War, I was only slightly peeved that it had an issue of She-Hulk I already had from my She-Hulk collected editions. That's the very nature of event tie-ins.
But when it's 4 issues? Come on, now!
After loving the original Annihilation event, I jumped on the relaunched Nova monthly (in trade-paperback format, of course). The first TPB of Nova was called (appropriately) "Annihilation Conquest" because he happens to be a key figure in the second event too. However, this TPB ended on a cliff-hanger... well, guess what? I just read the second half of that TPB all over again because Nova #4-#7 are included in the second volume of Annihilation Conquest. And the overlap ends at the very same cliffhanger?!
Since Nova figures into the rest of the volume, guess what they do? Marvel summarizes the rest of that particular storyline on a single text-only page before heading into the rest of the story (consisting of the Wraith mini and the Conquest proper mini).

Third: my pull list this week
Wildcats #1 - relaunched ...AGAIN. Ties into the 'end of the world plot' from Number of the Beast event. It's too bad that OTHER Wildcats relaunch was a failure...
Authority #2 - relaunched ...AGAIN). Also ties into NotB. Also too bad about the previous relaunch...
Echo #5 - just plain weird. But no failures here!
Fathom Vol.3#1 - Ale Garza does good pictures... I'll miss Turner's original look though.
WH40k: Exterminatus #1 - not a fan of the art, but if it gives colour to my tabletop games, that's cool.

The 3rd Bunny is Yellow

She seems to be one of the less-popular characters and has disappointingly little devotion. I decided to post my own thoughts on the Tsuruya-san 1/4 FREEing "bunny" figure from Good Smile Co.
Something unusual was that I purchased her at a local comics shop. I think I may have paid a bit more, but cosmic balance averages everything out in the end. With retail tax, I spent about $190. The figure comes in a box measuring nearly 18"x10"x10" so shipping would be up there. Plus there's always that 50/50 chance of being caught on import fees. So for a figure that retails at most places on-line for $140, I felt this was decent price. Plus I'm supporting a local business.

The figure itself is a wonderful sculpt as usual and features all the character detail we expect of the FREEing brand (she even has her trademarked fanged-tooth).
She's painted in a matte finish while her costume and eyes are glossy. This is great for a little bit of sparkle when the lighting is right. And of course, there are fabric the stockings (I'm not a huge fan of fishnets in real life, but I can't argue that they give the figure a real air of museum-like authenticity).
Tsuruya-san's pose is not a problem. As collectors well-know, an unbalanced figure can lead to "leaning" despite the relative stiffness of PVC. A character posed at an extreme angle will tend to warp over time. FREEing solved this problem by providing a stand with a small clear fork-shaped peg that plugs into the base with hold up her hair. Beware when setting this up as the green paint of her hair may get scratched (like mine!). Two more pegs slip into her feet and are also clear.
The base is also fairly unique for anime-PVC statues as it has a mirrored finish (don't forget to remove the protective film when you unpack her for the first time!). The base is hollow but is also about a half-inch in height making the total figure height slightly taller than it should be when standing next to Mikuru and Haruhi.

For a closer look at FREEing's other offerings:
Suzumiya Haruhi in Black
Asahina Mikuru in Red
Kyon's Little-Sister in pink?!
Nagato Yuki in White
Kimidori Emiri in Purple
Asakuro Ryoko in Blue

the workspace

Because somebody asked... here is what my work area currently looks like.
What you don't see is that on the left is a series of piles of sheets which would look like a mess if you didn't know what my filing system was (but yes, I go through each pile every day, so it's quicker to leave everything out than to clean it up ALL the FREAKING time). And no, that's not some fancy screen-saver, that's me obscurring what I realized was sensitive information on my screen AFTER I took the picture (damn, even cheap cameras these days are hi-res!).
A recent addition is this avatar-like Mighty Muggs Lando Calrissian. He's always happy. Even when I'm stuck filling out SYNCSORT statistics reports. The resemblance to his movie-sake is uncanny:

stolen meme

1. What is your occupation right now? "Federal Agent," get it? ;)

2.What color are your socks right now? barefoot (white earlier today)

3. What are you listening to right now? The Forcecast podcast.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? potato chips (ketchup flavour)

5. Can you drive a stick shift? according to Gran Turismo 3, yes. according to real life, who knows??

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mother

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I stole it... pretty much.

8. How old are you today? 31

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? hockey

10. What is your favorite drink? Coca-Cola

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? no

12. Favorite food? at the moment it's poutine from Lac St.Jean

13. What is the last movie you watched? Hellboy 2

14. Favorite day of the year? April 1st

15. How do you vent anger? I curse under my breathe even in socially unacceptable settings.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? The G.I.Joe VAMP jeep.

17. What is your favorite season? Fall

18. Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries taste better... but then blueberries don't have pits

19. Do you want your readers to try this? not really

20. Who is the most likely to respond? DJ-Specs ...he'll probably comment that this being long.

21. Who is least likely to respond? Napoleon ...as if I don't know he's reading my blog.

23. When was the last time you cried? an hour after I closed on the house (had more pent-up stress than I thought)

24. What is on the floor of your closet? boxes of... stuff.

25. What did you do last night? Played Metal Gear Solid 3

26. What are you most afraid of? being really alone

27. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? cheese

28. Favorite dog breed? Husky+Labrador (Starfish's first dog)

29. Favorite day of the week? Saturday (morning, specifically)

30. How many states have you lived in? None, but I've visited the New England area.

31. Diamonds or pearls? diamonds

32. What is your favorite flower? Guy Lafleur

Another one coming up...

Looks like Good Smile Co.'s FREEing brand is going to take another shot at tempting us all.

Good Smile is announcing this for September of this year at a suggested retail price of 11800 yen (works out to be about $112CAD; but in reality, either be it inflation at my local comics shop or shipping through eBay, it'll probably be a lot more than that). Be sure to click-thru for more views of the figure!

Kid Nemo also has a few additional images available to view.

My question is... along with Ryoko, Good Smile is also listing a re-release of the original Suzumiya Haruhi and Asahina Mikuru for September as well; I wonder if the crazy eBay prices will drop back to reasonable levels with the new supply coming to the market. Just curious...

Being shelved

This entry started out as another rant about my silly adventures trying to get to the local postal outlet and easily devolved into my lament over not getting to deal with Post Office Girl anymore. So instead, I decided to go with a shelf-examination of my collection. And quite simply, the last photos I posted were some 3 years old...

Here is the latest arrangement on the top shelf. (Hey, some people arrange flowers... I'm allowed to arrange figures).
Yes, that's a Kid Robot "the good" keychain in front. My latest acquisition is the FREEing version of Haruhi in her bunny outfit by Good Smile.
Here's something I haven't blogged previously. I got the "Subcasts" Spider-man by TweeQim from Upper-Deck and Marvel on my trip to Toronto last month.
Here's me trying to be artsy with my photography... Mikuru is the poor victim whom Haruhi recruited to be her school club's mascot.
Before I go, here's a bonus screen from the actual anime. So yes, these crazy bunny-costumes ARE in continuity!