Past News Archive: June 2008
June 30, 2008
Last day of the month & tomorrow being Canada Day. Since I won't update tomorrow, Happy Canada Day to all you Canadians out there. And since Independence Day is coming close as well, Happy Fourth of July to my neighbours down south.
During my last day of work for the week, I decided to be a jerk & test something out that is related to my workplace. A few weeks back, a couple of my co-workers decided to play a joke about be quitting to the new front agent desk. I was told that she went emotional about it & her quitting as well until they said it was a joke. Personally, I failed to believe this until I was somewhat high & decided to try it by having those two members do it again as I disguised myself as a guest in the lobby reading a paper while we waited for her to come. In case you are wondering, I can really get unnoticed easily. Anyways, she didn't fall for it for the second time until they give her a story that is out of whack. She really got emotional & I couldn't believe it. I had to stop it since she was tearing up. I apologized to her many times & I pretty much knew I was stupid in doing this, but I didn't think that would happen. But I did tell everyone that I plan to quit, but don't know when since I can't advance anymore in the hotel. Plus, I don't want to quit & not being able to find a job for a long time.
Last week, I finally got my Jingai Makyo Didi figurine in the mail. The day after I updated this site to be exact. Now, I'm waiting for my WILD FLOWER artbook to come. Plus, some DVDs as well. For more strange news, I preordered a PS3 80GB Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle from the Sony Store. The way that came about is pretty strange really. The story started out as my dad wanted to get a Blu-Ray player. I suggested a PS3 since I heard that it's the best Blu-Ray player out there & it's cheaper due to its capabilities. The Sony Store says they'll get them in July & it's not guaranteed since it's on a list. I'm on the start of the second page of the reserves. Don't know if I'll be able to get it. I'm no rush to get it since there isn't that many games I want to play on it, but a 80GB with its features is hard to come by.
In anime news, FUNimation acquired Heroic Age. I was actually watching it, but didn't get go past episode five since it was pretty dry to me. Had plans to watch it, but got too lazy to.
For updates at the end of the month, I got up Kaibutsu Oujo (Monster Princess) again since I found an extra episode from the DVDs available in fansubs & Moetan. For collectables, up are Good Smile Company Nendoroid #33: Vocaloid2 Miku Hatsune & Kotobukiya Jingai Makyo 1/8 Didi PVC Figurine (Hobby Japan exclusive). Pretty fast for the Didi, huh? For me at least.
June 23, 2008
Last week, I finished two PSP games (somewhat). Finished Crisis Core one round with all missions completed & God of War on Easy mode (was unsure how hard the game was & held it off for some time). Currently working on Warriors of the Lost Empire now. Got the Koei Warriors series to do as well. Generation of Chaos & Monster Hunter won't count cause the first game is laggy on my PSP & the second one has no ends. Currently thinking on which RPG to work on next since Yggdra Union is somewhat coming out on September & no other RPG games that I'm interested in are coming out as of now. Plan to get some reviews on the completed games soon. But correcting this place took a lot of time!
I spent nearly a whole day of my day off getting almost all the pages correct in terms of link problems. A lot of it were the review pages & had a lot of them! I'm lucky that I didn't improve the image of this place very fast or else it would have take a lot longer!
In the mail, I got my Nendoroid Lucky Star Meets Fate figurines on last Thursday. It came pretty fast. Still got Jingai Makyo Didi on the way. My closet is in serious need of a clean up!
Also in the mail, my family received a present from my cousin & her husband. I don't know what you call them, but it's one of those gifts you receive for attending a wedding from the bride & groom. A set of fork & spoon for everyone in my family. Also, we got a picture with them & my dad's side of the family that attended (my cousin is from my dad's side of the family if you are wondering). Although it's late (they wedded back on April 20 this year), my congrats to them even though I never met my cousin in law once.
In anime news, FUNimation announced the licensing of Big Windup! (aka Ookiku Furikabutte). Heard of the anime, but never seen it. No loss of gain for me. Bandai Visual USA is no more as it is now merged with Bandai Entertainment (which should have been anyways) after liquidating that department out. Under Bandai Entertainment, Sword of the Stranger & the Tamagotchi movie. Media Blasters has confirmed that they have both seasons of Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan.
While cleaning this place, I saw some sections & pages that I thought I had put up but didn't. It was like that for a long time. It was mainly the collectables. So I decided to put some of them up this week. Got up are Shueisha 2007 Death Note Calendar (Manga Version) & SOL International Rozen Maiden Träumend Suigintou Sword Pendant. Hope to get some more next week before the month ends. Probably the ones that have been sitting on my HD for awhile.
June 16, 2008
Although it's summer now, I haven't put up my summer figurines out during this season for two reasons. One is that it's a cold summer lately. It almost feels like fall or spring. Second is the space issue. I really need to do something about it.
Last week, I had to get a new video card for my computer. Three resistors popped for some strange reason. I did heard the popping sounds, but I didn't know what they were originally as I looked around my room. It happened at different time intervals.
When I read that my new card can dual-link dual DVI (but most of my old cards actually could too), I'm thinking about doing it since I have so many windows/programs opened. Plus, it may make my website designing a bit easier as well as photo stuff in the future maybe. The problem with this for me is that my current monitor is 19" while the spare one is 15" which may make the resolution to be a bit problematic. The analog & digital thing isn't a problem with me & the size are the same (4:3). I do plan to go widescreen someday, but getting two of them at the same size will be a headache. I tried it & it wasn't too bad in terms of space. However, I'm probably not using it properly at the moment as I'm too used with one monitor. So far, it has really helped me in web design. I use one monitor to make while the other is for test the results. If it really doesn't help me out, I may go back to one. Plus, electric bills are going up in rates so it may be too costly to do this.
Speaking of web designing, I recently found out that most (if not) all my reviews aren't coming/displaying out the way I want them to. Plus, I found some dead links in lot of pages. Since I got a lot of them, I'm probably going to spend a lot of time fixing than updating. All that past work for nothing! As a result, no updates for this week until I get this place sorted out.
Received word from YesAsia that my Shunya Yamashita WILD FLOWER artbook order has been delay due to production problems. To me, it's probably shipment delays to them. Also, I received notices about my Jingai Makyo Didi & Nendoroid Fate Meets Lucky Star figurines having been shipped this week. If things turn out ok, I should get them by early next week. If lucky, the end of this week.
In anime news, Media Blasters picked up Dokuro-Chan. It's unclear if that got both OVAs or the first one at this point. Kadokawa Pictures USA is pulling a Media Factory move in North America. They have sent Cease & Decease (C & D) letters for anime shows & OVAs made by their Japanese parent company. Most of them aren't licensed yet, but they are just pulling them out from oversea viewers.
June 9, 2008
Life feels empty lately for me. Same old job, same old lifestyle, etc. Don't know what I should be doing. I've been feeling that I've been wasting my life all these years. I don't have any accomplishments that I can really look back on that I can feel proud of. It's probably all this emo stuff going around me. Plus the fact that my left ear is breaking up for some reason.
After helping out with my dad's work, I got a sore throat, some pain under my tongue, & the skin around my left ear breaking up to the flesh. I don't mind the sore stuff (although the tongue is giving me some problems in eating & talking), the ear problem is disgusting to look at. Ripped skin in some areas & the flesh being red with some weird liquid coming out (probably white blood cells) after putting on some different assortment of creams. It just gets worse & worse. I've tried to make a appointment with my family doctor, but it was full or not within my schedule. I could only get it for tomorrow morning, which was two days from the day I tried to make an appointment. Better than nothing I guess. But my ear is healed to the point that it's almost complete. Almost a waste of time from me to book that appointment now.
As some of you may know, Shunya Yamashita has released a second illustration book under the name WILD FLOWER. To celebrate it, I've upload his artbook in the Artbooks & Illustrations Books section. No, not his latest one since I'm not in Japan. But I'll being getting it coming my way for sure. The artbook I meant is Sweet Dreams: Shunya Yamashita Illustrations.
Other updates for this week include Getsumen To Heiki Mina & RED Entertainment X Good Smile Company Trinity Box #4: Nida Schuetlich.
June 3, 2008
New month now, so it means to put the May 2008 postings in the Past News Archives section.
Lately, I've been playing around with digital photography on my figurines with the Canon EOS 40D. I probably said this before, but the camera doesn't really suit my needs. I do close range photography on my collectables as you can see from my reviews & I think the lens that the 40D has now is using isn't appropriate for it. End up stepping back a lot just to get a good focus. As a result, I don't have very close pics like before. You probably see this from the Nendoroid Lucky Star reviews I did. Those were my first test shots with the camera & you can pretty much see how my lighting box tent was made as well. I'm no pro in figuring out what lens to use too.
The 40D is a good camera though as I like how I can use my laptop to connect to it to see how the image will turn out like on a bigger screen. Problem is that my laptop is back from my college years which creates the images from the camera slow & you can see major lag when you move the camera around to focus on the object. Not buying a new laptop for this since this is really a side project & not a real hobby for me. Anyways, I think I'll have all my collectable reviews contain pic from this camera now since my father is buying so much accessories for it & doesn't really have time to take pics with it himself. It's much better to use than the DSC-F828 since this one has an image stabilizer which is ideal for me to use for figure gallery purposes.
Anyways, first updates for the month are minor. Why? Cause I got a bit sick recently. Got a sore throat now since yesterday as I was doing some work at a place with a lot of sawdust. I think a lot of it got into my system. Anyways, what's up is Cielo: Kozue Amano Illustration Works III in the Artbooks & Illustration Books section & that's it. Aside from being sick, I'm also beat from hotel work. High season = too much work.