weekend checklist

List of things I've done since Friday:

- Showed Napoleon where I normally park (and drove him home). I also
learned that day that Napoleon, like his namesake, is a freaking dance
machine. He has, as we say, DDR skillz. I didn't stick around long
enough to learn whether he also had nunchucku skillz.

- I watched Iron Eagle II... it hasn't aged well. But then, that movie
sucked to begin with.

- Played Metal Gear 3 and started straying from the FAQ. But when I went
back to check again, I realized I had been doing everything right after
all. I think I'm making decent progress. The story unfortunately has
devolved into the typical "go here to get this to get there" plot
twists. Oh well.

- Stopped at the comics shop (turned out it was the summer sale event).
Coincidentally, this was also the weekend I decided to place my order at
Amazon for a bunch of books I haven't been able to find. Already on my
credit card this month: my trip to Toronto and Mikuru bunny-girl. Walked
out of the store with the first "Death of Captain America" trade. I
spent a whole bunch of time chatting with the fellow at the counter
about Kamen Rider; a fun diversion.

- Made a stupid huge grocery run... but mostly stocked up on
non-perishables. Just to get that out of the way. I can always get fresh
fruits on a need-to-eat basis.

- Watched Wipe-Out (or as I call it: "American MXC"). I like that they
actually follow the contestants as they play through the game (whereas
MXC essentially cuts together as much wacky footage as possible to fill
time).

- Got to the final chapter of 'War for Honor' ...finally. This is a big
step because, not only was it the longest instalment yet of the
"Honorverse" series, this means it's time for me to switch gears. I have
my Harry Potter movie marathon to refresh my memory, then get started on
'Half-Blood Prince.' Also on the backlog is jPod which Weirdguy loaned
me months ago...

not a good sign

Remember only a few days back I was complaining about a site that just wouldn't update my order? Check this out:


Yeah, that's right... looks like a DB error of some kind. That's not a good sign for the state of things. Especially since my payment was already processed... Thankfully, it's only a matter of $36 or so. But still, that's like half a year of my Zip rentals (assuming I stick with the cheapest option).

Mikuru in red!!

I just wanted to say, in a complete and utter reversal, contrasting from my previous post about waiting too long for an online source to process an order for me, last week's eBay seller not only responded to me the same day I clicked on Buy-It-Now, he also fired off my shipment the very same week. And he actually charged me just about correctly on EMS shipping. And on top of all that, it arrived today - exactly 7 calendar days from when I decided I wanted to blow my Quebec student loan class action winnings on this...

It's a 1/4 scale rendition of Mikuru from Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Since my photography skillz suck (and you should ignore the constant construction of Warhammer Space Marines in the background), check out Freeing's official web page for a closer examination of the product!

Review: Dynamo 5 "Moments of Truth"

For all the pros of playing wait-for-the-trade, the cons are that, you really need to keep a close eye on the publisher's sites because often, months go by between volumes while the steady stream of new material makes it way through retail. But despite the toll on patience, this con is offset by the opportunity to read a sequential story arc all in one sitting.

The second volume of Dynamo 5 came out last week but I only knew about this week. Except for the return to normal pricing, it does not disappoint.

Something fun about a fresh new title is that there's plenty of room for introducing new ideas to the established characters without fear of contradicting some obscure trivia. The team members in this case are still keeping secrets from each other (and the reader) leading to several surprises. This arc is made up of issues 8 to 13 which includes the conclusion to the telepath's recovery (he was in a coma when we last left the Dynamo 5), guest spots for the Firebirds and the Nobles, the kids dealing with various family members discovering their secret lives as super-heroes, and discovering a little more than they bargained for about each other.

On a side note, while I've gotten over my dislike for Slingshot's costume, I've developed a new dislike for Visionary's costume. By now I've just come to accept that she flies... and that her other ability is to be super-sexy. Visionary is a guy who's only powers are "super-eyes" including enhanced vision (think Superman) and energy projection (think Cyclops). So if the character's theme is all about his eyes... why is he one of the characters who face is completely obscured? Shouldn't he have a costume that does everything except to cover up his eyes? He doesn't even need the Cyclops excuse about containing his uncontrollable Optic Blast.

gear-grinding: no updates from e-stores

It takes me forever to decide whether to try a new e-shopping source. It's because being burnt once is quite enough. Many years ago, an ebayer never got back to me after claiming to have sent my winnings (I never got them; thankfully it was only a $20 item). But from time to time, I find that rare item I just "must" have. And when it's from a source I haven't used before... well, I spend a whole lot of time debating whether to trust the source or not...

One thing that does not help a situation is when I place my order and it just sits.

And I mean it sits around: the site does not update, there's no communication from the source, and for all I know, my money is in limbo while I wait.
I mean seriously... they even have this "check order" page - what good is that if it never gets updated? And yes, I snapped that today. I'm going to count it as a full week because even taking into account that it's actually Friday night, on the side of the planet where this source is located, it should already be Saturday, which in all likelihood is not even a business day. I'll keep you posted if I ever get anything in the mail.

Reaction: The Incredible Hulk (spoilers!)

Bad timing got me a solo trip to the theatre this time. It's the number 2 film coming out of Marvel Studios' house (next to Iron Man a few weeks ago). The Incredible Hulk is a sequel despite what its presentation tells you. I call it a sequel because despite visual cues stating otherwise (the absence of the graphical style of the 2003's version, footage implying that the Hulk was the result of a planned experiment rather than an accident, and minor dialog implying that the army was behind the research), for the most part, nothing in this outing directly contradicts the previous film.

But what does this film do that the previous film did not?

For one thing, it's a much more straight forward action-adventure story. Plus where Superman Returns failed (the pervasive opinion being, "lots of super-flights, but not enough super-fights") The Hulk gets an opponent that has the ability to beat the snot out of him.

That would be Emil Blonksy... career soldier who goes through a series of experiments to turn himself into the ultimate fighting machine. Comics fans will recognize him as the man who will become "The Abomination." Except this time, the film producers begin mixing and matching story elements right from the get go.

Firstly, the discussion of the experiments mentions several significant key words: "Super Soldier," "WW2," and "serum." If these terms sound familiar... they should. They're the core ingredient to making a certain star-spangled sentinel of liberty... Captain America.

In fact, aside from that tie-in, the only major change in background for Blonksy was that he's no longer a KGB agent, but has been turned into an Army operative for this film. Not unlike changing the jungles of the Far East into the deserts of the Middle East in Iron Man.

Other tie-ins and possible clues involved: Sam Sterns who goes by "Mr.Blue" in this film is the name of the man who becomes "The Leader," a super-smart criminal genius in the Hulk comics. The beginnings of his grotesque head are shown briefly as Abomination leaves him in as a helpless crumpled heap.

SHIELD is back of course as this movie builds on the unified Marvel Universe established in Iron Man. Nick Fury's name appears on a file header during the opening montage. But one thing that bugged me was how SHIELD was portrayed... As the ultimate in secret services, I found it a little heavy-handed to show that General Ross was using their resources to track Banner. It made it seem like SHIELD was just another branch of the US Army at his disposal (it shouldn't ...the regular military should be at SHIELD's disposal).

The presence of Stark Industries technology, however, makes perfect sense since they're a civilian company mostly likely contracting out to the US military. And yes, that's indeed Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Tony.

Everybody catch the other cameos? The poor schmoe who sipped the contaminated bottle of soda was Stan Lee, of course. And Lou Ferigno reprises his role as the university campus security guard.

All told, it was a fun movie. Hulk does his thing well: the ground-pound, clapping to put out a fire, jumping great distances... And he looked good doing it. His skin texture was a huge improvement over the 2003 version. The only thing I disliked was that the Hulk seemed to display a finite amount of power, frequently getting beaten down before recovering. In the comics, the rule is, "madder Hulk gets, stronger Hulk gets!" This wasn't a problem in the 2003 version where he noticeably grew as the action progressed. In this film, he pretty much sticks to a 7-foot height throughout. I wouldn't call that a reason to dislike the movie tho. In the end, I had a good time, and that's all that matters!

Toronto Haul list

Traveled extra light this year because I wasn't driving. Plus I was staying with my cousin downtown so whatever happened, I had to lug this stuff around in the subway. Photos later whenever I feel like posting them.

1. Marvel Subcasts Spider-Man statue by Upper Deck. Not because I like this one in particular, but because I was at the famous Silver Snail and that's the one they happened to have in stock. Plus I was feeling sufficiently "metro" to buy urban-art.
2. Iron Man torso T-shirt... because I was feeling like being "funny." I think I rather came off geeky than funny, however.
3. Several booster boxes of UFS cards. Cheaper to buy in complete boxes than individual packs. Plus you get the "box topper" promo card you can't get otherwise.
4. A volume of Yotsuba&! manga.
5. A random assortment of gashapon including a full set of Sakura Taisen (I can't remember which release off-hand), a DS stylus (with Bullet Bill on top), a Nu Gundam, a Meer figure from Gundam Seed, a micro-figure of Gundam Victory, and a sushi meal.

Also conveniently timed... my last order from Maelstrom arrived in the mail the one day I stopped over at my house before heading for Sherbrooke so now I have the Codex Space Marines to browse. Nice to have a colour hardcopy to look through rather than that PDF file I downloaded somewhere up the line.